Leveraging Supply Chain and Logistics Emerging Technologies to Serve Industry Needs

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Logistics and Supply Chain (L/SC) professionals find sources of and distribute both raw materials and finished products. A shortage of qualified L/SC technicians has resulted in a growing workforce gap of six available jobs for every currently employed skilled worker. Industry officials have linked the workforce shortage to five key factors: increasing demand for new L/SC talent, L/SC talent gaps, changing dynamics of supply chains, limited capacity to educate and train new talent, and the poor image of the profession with the millennial workforce. To meet industry needs, community colleges must work collaboratively with industry partners to revise current L/SC programs or develop new programs that prepare the next generation of L/SC professionals. This project at Palo Alto College (San Antonio, Texas) aims to better serve the specific L/SC workforce education needs of regional businesses and industries. The program aims to: increase the science, technology, engineering and mathematics content and technical training in its L/SC programs; increase L/SC student enrollment; improve L/SC student technical skills and STEM knowledge; and improve L/SC educational and workforce pipelines. The project will combine an L/SC industry workforce assessment with research on the career expectations of millennial students. By appealing to the millennials' interest in new technologies and leveraging the evolving technological landscape of supply chains, the project has the potential to change the perception of L/SC careers among millennial students. As a result, a new generation of workers can be recruited into an industry with national and global importance. Because Palo Alto College is a Hispanic Serving Institution and the dual credit partner school districts have a majority Hispanic student population, an additional outcome of this project is the potential to diversify the L/SC industry. It also will serve a student group that is typically underrepresented in STEM education and training. The program will include hands-on technology-based lesson modules, mini-case competitions, recruitment efforts, industry internships, and development of an active student organization. The overall objective of the project is to create a high school to two-year to four-year L/SC educational pipeline, while incorporating robotics and other emerging supply chain technologies into the program curriculum. The project aims to educate and train more qualified (L/SC) technicians to meet workforce needs by: (1) conducting an industry review of the college Logistics associate degree and certificates, (2) creating four L/SC emerging technology course modules; (3) establishing a dual credit programs with three high schools (Southside, Southwest Legacy, and Veterans Memorial) where students can earn an L/SC associate degree; (4) conducting targeted recruitment activities to educate students about L/SC careers; (5) creating a Discover Logistics training module for secondary school educators; and (6) establishing a transfer agreement between Palo Alto College and the Texas A&M San Antonio (TAMUSA) four-year L/SC program. The project also plans to create and host an annual L/SC mini-case competition for partner high schools. STEM-based recruitment activities will strive to serve more than 1,000 high school students, while the dual credit program and course modules will aim to serve an estimated 150 high school students and 100 L/SC college students.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.