Working Partners: Documenting the Impact of Industry Collaboration within the ATE Community

认识到工业在科学、技术、工程和数学（STEM）技术人员的教育和培训中的重要作用，“工作伙伴：记录先进技术教育（ATE）社区内工业合作的影响”项目调查并确定了工业/社区大学伙伴关系和合作的有效模式的指标和特征。研究成果和工作伙伴工具包将加强并提供专业知识，以建立和维持有效的行业伙伴关系，并与两年制院校的STEM技术人员培训项目以及职业和技术教育的中等教育项目合作。研究和面向用户的传播活动的参与性是为了满足不同组成部分的信息需要。项目成果将促使政策制定者和实践者加强现有的伙伴关系和合作，并发展新型的行业/高等教育伙伴关系和合作，以进一步提高STEM技术人员的全球竞争力。该项目的范围和目标是：(1)确定、调查和记录ATE社区和行业之间存在的伙伴关系和协作模式；(2)调查并阐明合作模式的实施、挑战和影响；(3)探索和记录维持和支持生产性产业关系的条件；(4)记录ATE社区与行业合作产生的有意义的经历以及学生的学术和职业道路。基于系统的理论方法旨在理解和阐明由工具、规则、总体社区期望和劳动分工组成的系统中人与对象之间的各种相互依赖关系和联系。混合方法研究设计使研究项目的理论方法与ATE程序理论保持一致；将研究问题与研究方法相结合；结构数据收集（调查、访谈、文件分析、焦点小组）和数据分析（将突发主题和相关性与预期模式和相关性进行比较的描述性分析）；并为验证ATE/行业伙伴关系模型提供了一个概念性框架。

Recognizing the significant role of industry in the education and training of the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) technician workforce, the "Working Partners: Documenting the Impact of Industry Collaboration within the Advanced Technological Education (ATE) Community" project investigates and identifies indicators and features of effective models of industry/community college partnerships and collaborations. Research findings and the Working Partners Toolkit will enhance and provide know-how on creating and sustaining effective industry partnerships and collaborations with STEM technician oriented programs at two-year institutions and with secondary education programs in Career and Technical Education. The participatory nature of the research and user oriented dissemination activities are designed to meet the information needs of a diverse body of constituents. Project deliverables will engage policy makers and practitioners in strengthening existing partnership and collaborations and developing new types of industry/higher education partnerships and collaborations to further the global competitiveness of the STEM technician workforce. The scope and goals of the project are to (1) identify, investigate, and document the models of partnerships and collaboration that exist between the ATE community and industry; (2) investigate and articulate implementations, challenges, and impact of the partnership models; (3) explore and document conditions that sustain and support productive industry relationships; and (4) chronicle meaningful experiences and student academic and career pathways that arise from ATE community partnerships with industry. The systems-based theoretical approach seeks to understand and articulate the various interdependencies and connections between people and objects in a system composed of tools, rules, overarching community expectations, and divisions of labor. The mixed methods research design aligns the theoretical approach of the research project to the ATE program theory; couples the research questions to the research methods; structures data collection (surveys, interviews, document analysis, focus groups) and data analyses (descriptive analyses comparing emergent themes and correlations to expected patterns and correlations); and provides a conceptual framework for validating ATE/industry partnership models.