Mentor-Connect Forward: Leadership Development and Outreach for ATE

该项目将支持社区和技术学院及其教师提交提案，并最大限度地从先进技术教育（ATE）计划的资助中获益。ATE补助金提高了教师和机构的能力，以满足对熟练技术劳动力的需求。对高技能技术人员的持续需求得到了认可和充分证明，但教育计划已被COVID等颠覆者所颠覆。虚拟教学已经成为所有学科的必需品，总体入学人数下降，大学预算也在下降。与此同时，先进技术行业对技术人员的需求依然迫切且不断增长。尽管技术培训计划在帮助大学应对技术教育挑战方面具有独特的定位，但大学必须制定并提交拨款提案才能获得这笔资金。为了使ATE计划影响两年制高等教育机构（2年制IHEs）并培养工业所需的熟练技术工人，必须减轻成为ATE受助人的障碍。之前的奖励在减少障碍，吸引更多的两年制大学技术教育工作者，培养STEM教师领导者，扩大指导能力和增加ATE计划的影响方面取得了长足的进步。即便如此，仍有许多两年制大学尚未从ATE计划中受益。Mentor-Connect Forward: ATE的领导力发展和拓展（M-C Forward）将：1)通过扩大地理和人口多样性的2年制IHEs和STEM教师与ATE计划的接触，以新的和成熟的方式推进技术人员教育；2)促进利用东南亚地区开发的资源；3)鼓励和支持新的和以前的受资助机构提交提案；4)在获得ATE资助的人员中培养领导者和导师；5)支持和指导新的主要研究人员（pi），帮助他们成为成功的受助人。该项目以以往项目的成功和经验教训为基础，并利用了其他资助的指导项目的工作。同侪指导和技术援助将利用基于问题的学习，使大学团队参与可持续的、由教师主导的技术教育课程和项目的改进。ATE计划资讯、奖助金提案指示和发展策略将透过工作坊、网路研讨会、线上资源和服务台提供。导师研究员实习项目将在ATE项目中建立指导能力。现有的资源库将通过新的获取、审查和用户支持系统得到增强，并将受益于其他由技术支持基金会资助的指导计划的贡献。新的指导首次PI的教学资源和支持，PI 101，将促进领导力发展，减少学习曲线，支持改进的项目成果，并鼓励后续提案的发展。Mentor-Connect将响应所有项目活动的严格评估，并不断改进。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。

This project will support community and technical colleges and their faculty to submit proposals to, and maximize their benefit from, funding through the Advanced Technological Education (ATE) Program. ATE grants increase faculty ability and institutional capacity to address the need for a skilled technical workforce. The persistent need for highly skilled technicians is recognized and well-documented, but educational programs have been upended by disrupters like COVID. Virtual instruction has become essential across all disciplines, and overall enrollments have declined, as have college budgets. Meanwhile, the critical and growing need for technicians in advanced technology industries remains. Although the ATE Program is uniquely positioned to help colleges address technician education challenges, colleges must develop and submit grant proposals to access this funding. For the ATE Program to impact two-year institutions of higher education (2-yr IHEs) and educate the skilled technical workers needed by industry, barriers to becoming an ATE grantee must be mitigated. Prior awards have made strides toward reducing barriers, engaging more two-year college technician educators, developing STEM faculty leaders, expanding mentoring capacity, and increasing impacts of the ATE Program. Even so, there are still many two-year colleges that have not yet benefited from the ATE Program.Mentor-Connect Forward: Leadership Development and Outreach for ATE (M-C Forward) will: 1) advance technician education in new and proven ways by expanding engagement of geographically and demographically diverse 2-yr IHEs and STEM faculty with the ATE Program; 2) stimulate use of ATE-developed resources; 3) encourage and support the submission of proposals by new and previous grantee institutions; 4) develop leaders and mentors among those who receive ATE funding; and 5) support and guide new principal investigators (PIs) to help them become successful grantees. The project builds on successes and lessons learned from prior projects and leverages the work of other funded mentoring projects. Peer mentoring and technical assistance will leverage problem-based learning to engage college teams in sustainable, faculty-lead improvement of technician education courses and programs. ATE Program information and grant proposal instructions and development strategies will be provided via workshops, webinars, online resources, and a help desk. A Mentor Fellows internship program will build mentoring capacity in the ATE Program. An existing Resource Repository will be enhanced by a new intake, review, and user support system, and will benefit from contributions from other ATE-funded mentoring initiatives. New instructional resources and support to guide first-time PIs, PI 101, will promote leadership development, reduce the learning curve, support improved project outcomes, and encourage development of subsequent proposals. Mentor-Connect will be responsive to, and continuously improved by, rigorous evaluation of all project activities. 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.