(Back to the index) (Back to the beginning of this issue) © 2009 CORD	Florida Advanced Technological Education Center (FLATE; www.fl-ate.org) has been funded since 2004 by the National Science Foundation (NSF). Based at the Hillsborough Community College Brandon Campus, FLATE's mission is to create a manufacturing educational delivery system by offering the curriculum development, technical programs, best practice demonstrations, student involvement, and outreach activities necessary to meet the workforce capacity and high-performance skill needs of manufacturing sectors throughout the state of Florida. FLATE works with the Florida Department of Education's (FLDOE) Career and Adult Education Division to implement systemic statewide change as well as with community college and secondary educators to facilitate local implementation of those changes and to recruit students into the programs. Demand-driven response to Florida's manufacturing community called for revisions to the curriculum frameworks for engineering technology and manufacturing-related programs based on the following: Many of the curriculum frameworks that inform the outcomes of manufacturing-related AS/AAS degrees were outdated by 15–20 years. Manufacturers voiced to the state their concerns about the lack of a qualified labor force in Florida, a lack that mirrors a national crisis. "Eighty-one percent of the respondents to the 2005 Skills Gap Survey of the American Manufacturing Workforce (Deloitte and the Manufacturing Institute, 2005) said they couldn't find qualified employees to fill their open positions" (Training & Development, February, 2006). There was limited or, at best, inefficient communication between manufacturers and the community college sector at the state level on the issues of workforce education and training. Thus, manufacturers' needs for qualified personnel were not being addressed. It was difficult for manufacturers to know what competencies community college graduates acquired, given the nine different manufacturing-related degrees and varying course names, numbers, and descriptions. There were no clearly defined jobs or career pathways for AS and AAS graduates. Therefore, the "levels" of compensation for such graduates were unclear and/or unknown. New national and statewide guidelines from both the Department of Education and Workforce Florida recommend that technical programs at all levels be aligned to one or more national industry certifications. Considering all of these points and realizing that students need a variety of flexible options for education and skill credentialing, FLATE developed an internal one-plus-one degree structure as the most viable option to meet the needs of the colleges, industry, and students. Consensus building for the new engineering technology degree technical core (year one) and its curriculum frameworks occurred concurrently with the development of the technical specializations (year two), which are based on the common technical competencies but go on to provide in-depth technical education in several disciplines. The MSSC (Manufacturing Skills Standards Council, www.msscusa.org) competencies for the certified production technician (CPT) were cross-walked with the proposed academic frameworks and with the student outcomes of five technical core courses. This enabled the technical core not only to contain a strong technical background and prepare students to pass the MSSC CPT exams, but also to provide early access to hands-on technical courses. In addition to adding industry relevance to the degree, embedding the MSSC CPT into the degree's technical core was the key to the FLATE-developed statewide articulation agreement that was approved by the FLDOE in 2008. This agreement provides 15 credit hours (of the 18-credit-hour technical core) toward the engineering technology degree in any college in the state offering the degree, for any holder of a current MSSC CPT credential. This agreement was the first of its kind in Florida and the nation and established an important model for all of Florida's career pathways. Florida is now replicating this model in its Gold Standard Career Pathways initiative and has over 20 statewide articulation agreements based on national industry certifications in several career clusters. The articulation-by-certification concept led FLATE to develop an MSSC CPT-aligned curriculum framework for secondary and postsecondary certificate programs (automation and production technology) that would also support the manufacturing and production industries and articulate into the engineering technology degree. This companion framework gives high school students access to the articulated pathway to the associate degree. Pre-engineering and manufacturing career academies in Florida now use MSSC CPT-credentialed faculty to prepare students not only for postsecondary education but also for this national industry certification. In the spring of 2009, FLATE's innovation in articulated career pathways received national attention when the National Association of Manufacturer's (NAM) Manufacturing Institute revealed its new Skills Certification System credentialed career pathways. FLATE's curriculum reform efforts were in place in Florida when NAM introduced its industry-endorsed system, which will "revolutionize education and training for the 21st century manufacturing workforce," according to NAM President and CEO John Engler. The NAM system of career-readiness credentials includes a series of progressive certifications valued by manufacturers to acknowledge increasing levels of skill and experience attainment. This hierarchy of certifications is aligned with the Department of Labor's Competency Model for Manufacturing (www.doleta.gov). It begins with certification for employability skills and continues through experienced certified manufacturing technologists. The integration of the NAM-endorsed Skills Certification System into academic settings was covered in two related sessions at the 2009 HI-TEC conference (http://www.highimpact-tec.org). FLATE presented its engineering technology AS/AAS degree and integrated MSSC CPT certification pathways for secondary students and incumbent workers. In another session, Weld-ED (a national ATE center) showed how its curriculum integrates the American Welding Society (AWS) certification, which is also aligned with the NAM system. At the NCPN conference, participants will have the opportunity to learn more about FLATE's model curriculum and the NAM-endorsed Skills Certification System, discuss lessons learned when using certifications in the continuum of secondary and postsecondary education, and explore broader implications for best practices in other career clusters. Back to the index     © 2009 CORD	Marilyn Barger is Principal Investigator and Executive Director, FLATE, Hillsborough Community College, Tampa, Florida. For more information, contact Marilyn at mbarger@hccfl.edu.