Foundation of Technical Careers

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The Department of Engineering and Technology at Bristol Community College and ten high schools in the region are collaborating with business, industry, and governmental agencies to identify, recruit, and prepare technicians for the new economy. Summer Institutes in Technology are offered for high school and college faculty. The themes are project-based, and workshops include discussion of teaching and learning styles and national and state standards; field trips to industry and speakers are incorporated. Themes include underwater robotics, nanotechnology, and MATEC Factory Wise modules for HAS-200 Highly Automated System. Foundations in Technical Careers is a certificate program including: Introduction to Engineering and Technology, Computer Tools for Engineers, Computer Aided Drafting, Technical Communication Skills, and Technical Applications of Mathematics. Three courses are new, designed to address curious but undecided students. Assessments, course content, and personal advisement will help to direct students toward appropriate fields of study and a technical career. Courses are tuition-free, except for fees and texts of approximately $500, a significant incentive for BCC's low-income students. Other implementation activities include a strong outreach and recruitment plan, the improvement of technology labs for project-based learning and discovery, convocations to support professional development, workshops, and a website. Intellectual Merit: The program design and the content of the institutes and the certificate program address the regional educational needs at the secondary and postsecondary level. The activities include plans for meaningful assessment of participants' progress, appropriate pedagogy and content for nontraditional students, and enhancement of labs for project-based learning. Broader Impacts: A significant aspect of this project is the aim to close the skills gap in technical fields by creating a pathway between secondary and postsecondary levels. Efforts are grounded in a strong collaborative organization that brings all the players together to implement the project. Every aspect of the project is outcomes-oriented and designed to have a broad impact, including cultivating public awareness of engineering disciplines and their relationship to society and supporting career opportunities for a large region that is undergoing economic redevelopment.