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State Sen. Aaron Osmond will resign from the Legislature to become president of the beleaguered Utah College of Applied Technology (UCAT).
Osmond, currently the vice president of a testing service used by the state's tech-college network, is set to replace UCAT leader Rob Brems, the college's board of trustees announced Thursday.
The announcement comes on the heels of a legislative audit that found the public institution began inflating its certification rates in 2013.
In addition to being an officer at Certiport Global Business Unit, which provides digital exams and certification programs, Osmond is the former CEO of WealthRock Real Estate Investor Education. He also held other jobs overseeing education programs for Microsoft Learning and for Novell.
Osmond will step down from Certiport sometime before he takes over, said UCAT spokeswoman Elsa Zweifel, though she could not say exactly when.
The South Jordan Republican beat out four finalists for the job, including current administrators of UCAT branches, one a five-time finalist.
Brems is vacating the post to serve a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Barcelona, Spain.
It's the second time he's stepped down from the job.
In 2007, he resigned as UCAT president after an audit found that under his leadership, UCAT's Orem campus built a parade float for the Utah County Republican Party, initially on the college's dime.
Brems also received a $157,000 transition package after his first promotion to UCAT president, that audit said, but under-reported his income on tax forms.
UCAT trustees reappointed him to the position in 2009, but the hiring process was publicly criticized for not being thorough enough. They then interviewed him and another finalist before reaffirming their choice.
This time, UCAT's board of trustees sought public input on the four candidates, but for less than a week.
Last week, auditors detailed UCAT's practice of retroactively pumping up its completion counts in front of a legislative panel including Speaker of the House Greg Hughes and Senate President Wayne Niederhauser. The network in 2013 began retroactively inflating completion counts, the audit found, by including students who passed job trainings and individual courses. The move was motivated by a state push to bring Utah closer to its goal of having two-thirds of adults earn some kind of post-high-school degree by 2020, auditors said.
Brems countered that certificates are now awarded for what the college deems "short-term programs." It's an effort by the college to better honor students' work, he said, and acknowledges that students want to spend less time in school now that the economy is recovering.
Osmond on Thursday did not address the controversy, but he said in a prepared statement that he's looking forward to the new job.
"I have dedicated over 20 years of my profession to the career and technical education industry on the private sector side. I now look forward to giving my full attention and energy" to help the schools train more students, he said.
Trustee Tom Bingham said the board believes Osmond is "the best choice to move UCAT ahead," praising the senator's vision and experience.
Osmond's first day on the job is Jan. 4, 2016. He is expected to resign from the Senate the same day.