Necessary Skills Now: Developing Employability Skills Through Sector-Specific Integrated Scenarios in Information Technology and Advanced Manufacturing

对美国多个行业雇主的调查表明，进入技术劳动力的学生仍然缺乏关键的“就业技能”（也被称为“软技能”、“劳动力准备技能”、“专业技能”、“21世纪技能”、“非认知技能”等），如团队合作、解决问题和沟通能力。该项目将吸引社区大学教师和雇主组成的团队，代表两个重要的、不断发展的技术领域——网络安全和机电一体化——共同开发课程模块，将技术内容与就业技能结合起来。该项目将把就业技能纳入现有的技术课程，并将使用真实的工作场所情景，使学生为他们在工作场所将遇到的日常情况做好准备，而不是在技术内容之外单独开设涵盖就业技能的课程。该项目将通过编制教员实施指南和提供如何与当地雇主合作以复制该项目的综合课程设计过程的讲习班，使技术教育的其他领域受益。最终，该项目旨在培养在工作中更有效的技术人员，无论是在团队环境中还是在个人工作中，他们都能更好地解决问题，提高沟通技巧（书面和口头），并能有效地利用和管理工作场所资源。在该项目中，职业研究与发展中心（CORD）将与三个NSF先进技术教育中心（ATE）合作——系统安全和信息保障中心（CSSIA）、佛罗里达州先进技术教育中心（FLATE）和南卡罗来纳州先进技术教育中心（SC ATE）——以及全国各地的网络安全和机电一体化雇主。该项目将开发、试点和修订教学材料，将特定行业的技术技能和就业技能整合到网络安全和机电一体化副学士学位课程的连续课程中，从基础到高级专业课程。这种在整个学习项目中整合就业技能的方法是新颖的。以下六个主要类别的就业技能，已经在调查和报告中反复提到，将作为综合课程的重点：(1)团队合作，(2)解决问题，(3)口头沟通，(4)书面沟通，(5)可靠性/职业道德，(6)计划和组织。教师和雇主团队将使用通用的教学设计模板，为每个部门（网络安全和机电一体化）开发六个综合课程项目。一旦起草，12个综合项目中的每一个都将由至少三所社区学院进行试点，使用共同的评估标准向项目团队提供反馈，然后项目团队将修改课程。项目小组和评价人员的工作也将有助于建立关于在先进技术课程中成功地纳入就业能力技能的情况的全面知识库，以及这种方法证明对其有效的受众。

Surveys of U.S. employers across multiple industrial sectors indicate that students entering the technical workforce continue to lack critical "employability skills" (also referred to as "soft skills," "workforce-readiness skills," "professional skills," "21st-century skills," "non-cognitive skills," etc.), such as teamwork, problem-solving, and communication. This project will engage teams of community college faculty and employers representing two important, growing fields of technology -- cybersecurity and mechatronics -- in jointly developing curriculum modules that integrate technical content with employability skills. Instead of developing stand-alone courses covering employability skills in isolation from technical content, the project will integrate employability skills within existing technical courses and will use authentic workplace scenarios to prepare students for the day-to-day situations they will encounter in the workplace. The project will benefit other fields of technological education by producing a faculty implementation guide and by offering workshops on how to collaborate with local employers to replicate the project's integrated curriculum design process. Ultimately, the project aims to develop technicians who are more effective on the job, whether in a team environment or working individually -- workers who are better problem-solvers, have improved communication skills (written and verbal), and can efficiently utilize and manage workplace resources.In this project, the Center for Occupational Research and Development (CORD) will collaborate with three NSF Advanced Technological Education (ATE) centers -- the Center for Systems Security and Information Assurance (CSSIA), the Florida Advanced Technological Education Center (FLATE), and the South Carolina Advanced Technological Education Center (SC ATE) -- as well as employers in cybersecurity and mechatronics across the country. The project will develop, pilot, and revise instructional materials that integrate sector-specific technical skills and employability skills within a continuum of coursework, from foundational to advanced specialty courses, in associate degree programs in cybersecurity and mechatronics. This approach of integrating employability skills across a whole program of study is novel. The following six major categories of employability skills, which have been repeatedly mentioned in surveys and reports, will serve as the focus of the integrated curriculum: (1) teamwork, (2) problem solving, (3) verbal communication, (4) written communication, (5) dependability/work ethic, and (6) planning and organizing. Teams of faculty and employers will develop six integrated curriculum projects for each sector (cybersecurity and mechatronics), using a common instructional design template. Once drafted, each of the 12 integrated projects will be piloted by at least three community colleges using a common evaluation rubric to provide feedback to the project team, which will then revise the curricula. The work of the project team and evaluator will also help contribute to the overall knowledge base regarding the circumstances that govern successful embedding of employability skills within curricula in advanced technology and the audiences for whom such approaches prove effective.