Since 1974, Kirkwood Community College has offered a statewide water and wastewater workshop program for operator upgrade and recertification. Currently, this program delivers a number of short, subject specific workshops designed to upgrade the skills of existing operators and basic training classes in water and wastewater treatment for entry level operators. Each workshop lasts from one to four days and covers a specific subjects such as pump maintenance, chlorination chemistry, or worker safety regulations. From 35 to 40 workshops are offered each year. About one-third of these are conducted at the Kirkwood Environmental Training Center. The remainder are offered at locations throughout the State of Iowa (schools, public meeting facilities, etc.). Last year over 1,000 operators attended workshops and basic training classes. Each workshop is designed to accommodate 15 to 25 operators. Workshops are taught by the Center's staff, the same staff that instructs the one- and two-year water and wastewater entry-level programs.

The ETC also offers a variety of self-study modules developed to aid the operator in basic plant process operation. The courses are all based on the texts developed by the California State University, Sacramento, Office of Water Programs. These self-study modules require completion of sample problem sets and exercises, as well as monitored evaluations where the operator must achieve a score of 80% to receive completion credit and advance to the next module. Currently, over 200 operators are enrolled in this self-study program.

Kirkwood Community College also provides evaluation and educational crediting of water and wastewater educational programs offered by other agencies such as Iowa Rural Water, Iowa Association of Municipal Utilities and Large Municipalities for in-house training.