OAKWOOD — Lanier Technical College instructors have nominated 16 students for the Georgia Occupational Award of Leadership, or GOAL, competition.

The students include three from the college’s Forsyth County campus: Mike Funk, Caitlin O’Hara and Tiffany Soto.

GOAL is a statewide program of the Technical College System of Georgia. Winners are selected at each of the state’s 23 technical colleges, as well as one Board of Regents college with a technical education division.

Kari Register, coordinator for Lanier Tech’s GOAL program, said in a statement that the purpose is to “spotlight the outstanding achievement by students in Georgia’s technical colleges and to emphasize the importance of technical education in today’s global work force.”

A screening committee of administrators at Lanier Tech will review each of the instructors’ nominations and conduct personal interviews with the students.

After the nominees have been ranked, four finalists will be chosen to compete to be the college’s winner for 2015. They will then take part in another round of interviews and evaluations by a selection committee of representatives from local businesses and industries.

The student judged most outstanding will be designated as the college’s GOAL winner and move on to the regional and perhaps state competitions.