Improving Employability Skills of Advanced Manufacturing Technicians through Industry Mentoring and Experiential Learning Activities

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Manufacturing has recently emerged as a major industry in North Texas, a predominately rural region of the US. Although the manufacturing industry has created many career opportunities for trained production technicians, it is difficult to find appropriately skilled workers in the region. This project builds on the results of a previous Advanced Technological Education project at Grayson College. The previous project established an Associate of Applied Science degree and certificate programs in Advanced Manufacturing Technology. The current project will develop an industry mentoring program and a new employability skills curriculum, to help address the needs of regional manufacturers for skilled technicians. Currently, only 25% of high school students in the region live within traveling distance to the college’s dual enrollment program in advanced manufacturing. Thus, to meet the needs of more high school students, the project will also develop an online option for advanced manufacturing technician education, with flexible lab hours for hands-on instruction.The project objectives are to: 1) improve student employability skills through a formal industry mentor program; 2) develop a new employability skills curriculum based on experiential learning; 3) increase awareness of advanced manufacturing career opportunities among targeted audiences; and 4) provide access for high school students in rural areas to a dual enrollment program leading to a certificate or degree in advanced manufacturing technology. The project evaluation will assess the effectiveness of the industry mentor training program, the preparedness of students in terms of employability skills, the level of public awareness of the advanced manufacturing program, and the degree to which student access has increased. This project is funded by the Advanced Technological Education program that focuses on the education of technicians for the advanced-technology fields that drive the nation's economy.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.