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

对美国多个工业部门雇主的调查表明，进入技术劳动力市场的学生仍然缺乏关键的“就业技能”（也称为“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），例如团队合作、解决问题和沟通。该项目将吸引社区学院教师和雇主代表两个重要的，不断增长的技术领域-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相结合。该项目不是开发孤立于技术内容的涵盖就业技能的独立课程，而是将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遇到的日常情况做好准备。该项目将通过编制教师执行指南和举办讲习班，介绍如何与当地雇主合作，复制该项目的综合课程设计过程，使技术教育的其他领域受益。最终，该项目的目标是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单独工作--更好地解决问题的工人，（书面和口头），并能有效地利用和管理工作场所的资源。在这个项目中，职业研究与发展中心（CORD）将与美国国家科学基金会的三个高级技术教育中心（ATE）合作，系统安全和信息保障中心（CSSIA）、佛罗里达高级技术教育中心（FLATE）和南卡罗来纳州高级技术教育中心（SC ATE）--以及全国网络安全和机电一体化领域的雇主。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课程的连续性中，从基础到高级专业课程，在网络安全和机电一体化的副学士学位课程中。这种在整个学习计划中整合就业技能的方法是新颖的。在调查和报告中反复提到的以下六大类就业技能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）规划和组织。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个社区学院使用共同的评价标准进行试点，以向项目小组提供反馈，然后由项目小组修订课程。项目小组和评价人员的工作还将有助于增进关于在先进技术课程中成功嵌入就业技能的情况以及此类方法证明有效的受众的总体知识基础。

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.