Advanced Manufacturing: Girls Can, Too

肯塔基州面临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。Bluegrass Community & Technical College （BCTC）教师对先进制造证书毕业数据的分析表明，在这些领域毕业的女性很少。BCTC为期三年的“女孩也可以”项目将通过教育、招聘和指导80名初高中女生从事与工业维修技术（IMT）相关的职业来解决这一问题。IMT是一个关键的技术领域，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高中女生开展认识和学习活动，并结合指导干预措施，然后招募10至12名高中女生参加双学分课程，为转入IMT项目获得证书、文凭或AAS学位做准备。IMT职业女性的指导和支持将为参加IMT项目的女性提供领导机会，为参加“女孩也可以”项目的初高中学生提供近乎同伴的导师。该项目的更广泛影响包括，通过加强和扩大高中双学分计划，将IMT准备课程纳入其中，支持女孩参与和过渡到技术领域。该项目还通过一个女性主导的指导项目和一个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革。该项目的智力价值在于其对一个不断发展的研究领域的贡献，该领域评估了指导和支持干预措施的价值，以解决STEM领域的性别差异。学院管理人员将审查项目的成功，并调整或扩大活动，以增加其他技术项目的入学率，这些项目存在类似的性别差异，因此学院可以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并从中学开始提供学习机会和指导，在工业维修技术领域招募和留住更多的妇女。女孩和年轻妇女将有机会在高中学习相关的双学分课程，并与女性教师和行业专业人员进行高水平的接触。每年，项目主管期望80名来自初中和高中的学生参加由两名教师支持的项目活动，这两名教师将领导干预和支持项目，包括周六在肯塔基州乔治城的学院先进制造校区的活动，以及让他们参与与工业维护相关的实践活动的暑期学习经验。参加该项目的高中生将有机会学习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的教师将通过参加中心的文化能力课程，在他们的教学技能之外，增加参与更多样化课堂所需的策略。该课程是由学院开发和提供的一学期课程，旨在推进教学和学习的公平和多样性目标。这些文化能力知识将被整合到IMT课堂中，以更新课程，更好地满足更多样化的学生群体的需求。该项目由先进技术教育计划资助，该计划侧重于为推动国家经济的先进技术领域培养技术人员。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值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.