Advanced Manufacturing: Girls Can, Too

肯塔基州面临着熟练技术工人短缺的问题，如果该州要推进其制造业基础，就必须解决这个问题。蓝草社区与技术学院(BCTC)的教师对高级制造业证书的毕业数据进行了分析，结果显示，在这些领域毕业的女性寥寥无几。BCTC的为期三年的女孩Can Too项目将通过教育、招聘和指导80名初中和高中女孩进入与工业维护技术(IMT)相关的职业生涯来解决这个问题，IMT是一个关键技术领域，提供安装、维护和维修工业系统设备的高技能技术人员。项目活动将为这些初中和高中女生开展提高认识和学习活动，并辅以辅导干预，然后招募10至12名高中女生参加双学分课程，为她们转到IMT计划获得证书、文凭或AAS学位做好准备。受雇于IMT的专业女性的指导和支持将为参加IMT项目的女性提供领导力机会，作为参与Girls Can Too项目的初中生和高中生的近乎同行的导师。该项目的更广泛影响包括通过加强和扩大高中双学分方案，将IMT准备课程包括在内，支持女孩参与和过渡到技术领域。该项目还通过女性主导的指导计划和商业和行业领导团队(BILT)，支持学院的支持、指导和行业联系系统的系统性变化。该项目的学术价值在于它对一个不断扩大的研究领域的贡献，该领域评估了指导和支持干预措施的价值，以解决STEM领域的性别差距问题。学院管理人员将审查项目的成功情况，调整或扩大活动，以增加其他性别差异相似的技术项目的招生人数，从而使学院能够建立一支多样化的熟练技术劳动力队伍。该项目的总体目标是通过提高认识、提供学习机会和指导，从中学开始招募和留住更多工业维护技术专业的女性。女孩和年轻妇女将有机会在高中学习相关的双学分课程，并与女性教职员工和行业专业人员进行高水平的接触。项目负责人预计，每年将有80名初中和高中学生参加由两名教员支持的项目活动，这两名教员将领导干预和支持项目，包括周六在肯塔基州乔治敦大学先进制造园区的活动，以及让他们参与与工业维护相关的实践活动的暑期学习体验。参加该项目的高中生将有机会参加四门与技术相关的双学分课程，为进入该学院的IMT项目做准备。IMT教师将通过参加BCTC的文化能力课程来增加他们的教学技能，从而使课堂更加多样化。BCTC的文化能力课程是该学院开发和提供的一门为期一学期的课程，旨在促进教学公平和多样化的目标。这些文化能力知识将融入IMT课堂，以更新课程，更好地满足更多样化的学生群体的需求。该项目由高级技术教育计划资助，该计划专注于为推动国家经济的先进技术领域培养技术人员。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Kentucky faces a skilled technical worker shortage that must be addressed if the state is to advance its manufacturing base. Analysis of graduation data in Advanced Manufacturing credentials by Bluegrass Community & Technical College (BCTC) faculty indicates few women graduate in these fields. BCTC’s three-year Girls Can Too Project will address this problem by educating, recruiting and mentoring 80 middle and high school girls into careers relating to Industrial Maintenance Technology (IMT), a key technical field that supplies highly skilled technicians who install, maintain and repair industrial systems equipment. Project activities will develop awareness and learning activities coupled with mentoring interventions for these middle and high school girls and then recruit 10 to 12 high school girls to enroll in dual credit courses that will prepare them for transfer into the IMT program to earn certificates, diplomas or AAS degrees. Mentoring and support by professional women employed in IMT will provide women enrolled in the IMT program with leadership opportunities as near-peer mentors for the middle and high school students participating in the Girls Can Too Project. The broader impacts of this project include support for girls’ engagement and transition into technical fields by strengthening and expanding high school dual credit programs to include IMT preparation courses. The project also supports systemic change in the college’s systems of support, mentoring and industry connections through a female-led mentoring program and a Business and Industry Leadership Team (BILT). The intellectual merit of the project rest on its contribution to a growing field of study that assesses the value of mentoring and support interventions to address gender disparities in STEM fields. College administrators will review project successes and adapt or expand activities to grow enrollment in other technical programs with similar gender disparities so the college can build a diverse skilled technical workforce.The overall goal of the project is to recruit and retain more women in Industrial Maintenance Technology by increasing awareness and providing learning opportunities and mentoring beginning in middle school. Girls and young women will gain access to relevant dual credit courses in high school and have high levels of contact with faculty and industry professionals who are women. Each year, project directors expect 80 students from middle and high schools to participate in program activities supported by two faculty who will lead the program of interventions and support that encompass Saturday engagements at the college’s Advanced Manufacturing campus in Georgetown Kentucky and summer learning experiences that engages them with hands-on activities related to industrial maintenance. High school students who participate in the program will have the opportunity to take four technology-related dual credit courses to prepare for enrollment in the college’s IMT program. IMT faculty will add to their pedagogical skills those strategies needed to engage a more diverse classroom by participating in BCTC’s Cultural Competency course, a semester-long course developed and offered by the college to advance the goals of equity and diversity in teaching and learning. This cultural competency knowledge will be integrated into the IMT classroom to update the curriculum and better meet the needs of a more diverse student body. 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.