Pathways for a Process Operations Technology Education Program for the Liquefied Natural Gas Industry

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This project aims to serve the national interest by developing and implementing an updated Process Operations Technology (PRO) program to prepare students for high-demand technical careers in the Liquified Natural Gas (LNG) industry. Targeted occupations include petroleum pump system operator, refinery operator, chemical plant and system operators, refrigeration specialists and gas plant operators. Texas is home to seven LNG export facilities that are in use, under construction, or in the planning stages and will eventually support 70,000 jobs in the region. Importantly, this project will build on prior work to redesign the PRO program into a flexible and accessible statewide model to address the needs of industry and employers in the East Texas region. This approach will provide students with increasingly flexible opportunities and pathways to obtain the necessary training to enter and be successful in the LNG industry. Ultimately, this project intends to contribute to the training of a highly skilled workforce for this rapidly growing industry and serve as a model in the region for how to develop flexible technical education pathways that meet student needs. Texas State Technical College will collaborate with local industry to achieve the primary goal of increasing the quality and number of highly skilled technicians in the LNG industry through the implementation of an innovative and flexible Process Operations Technology (PRO) program. This will be accomplished through the following activities: 1) partnering with industry to undergo a statewide curriculum alignment process of the PRO program courses to standardize curriculum and learning outcomes, 2) upgrading of instructional equipment to provide flexible, and accessible training in an open lab environment, and 3) combining a performance-based online instructional model with an innovative flexible career pathway approach featuring multiple entry/multiple exit (MEME) points. The project team aims to enroll a minimum of one hundred students over the three-year project period of which fifty students will graduate with either an AAS degree or an industry recognized certificate. A formal evaluation will be conducted to assess project activities and outcomes with a focus on contributing to the body of knowledge on flexible technical education pathways for preparing skilled technicians to be successful in the science and engineering technical workforce. As a result, this project has the potential to provide a model for the technical education community for how to transition from the traditional didactic contact hour format to a flexible career pathway format with a stair-step approach that promotes student retention and career-placement success. The team aims to immediately expand the project to other campuses located in the Dallas/Fort Worth area, the Texas Gulf Coast, West Texas, and the Rio Grande Valley through hybrid courses and other targeted dissemination efforts. 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.