Rebranding the 21st Century IT Technician

为了满足六县区对更多高技能信息技术(IT)技术人员的需求，斯波坎瀑布社区学院(SFCC)正在与当地学区、社区组织、行业合作伙伴、斯波坎劳动力联盟和华盛顿信息与计算技术卓越中心合作。该项目调整了新生、在校生和当地雇主对IT技术人员理想性别、技能和学位的看法。主要活动包括：(1)为中学女生提供IT夏令营，为中学教师和辅导员提供专业发展工作坊；(2)从IT的角度开设科学课程的教学部分，并在校园开设美国女性计算机(AWS)章节；以及(3)与当地雇主合作，制定简化的教育就业计划。该项目增加了关于如何招收和留住女学生，以及如何迅速使她们在K-12岗位上做好准备的知识库。它创建了一个证明技术和科学之间相互依存的课程，并制定了建立健全的就业跟踪和实习计划的程序。通过该项目建立的最佳实践可推广到其他STEM学科和技术人员培训计划。通过与华盛顿信息和计算技术卓越中心的合作，项目成果将提供给该州所有34所社区和技术学院的教师。通过ATE导师连接计划和SC ATE中心，结果将在SCATE.org和TeachingTechnician.org网站上全球公布。

To address the need for more high-skilled Information Technology (IT) technicians in a six-county area district, Spokane Falls Community College (SFCC) is partnering with local school districts, community organizations, industry partners, the Spokane Workforce Consortium, and the Washington Center of Excellence for Information and Computing Technology. The project adjusts incoming students', enrolled students', and local employers' perceptions of IT technicians' ideal genders, skill sets, and degrees. The major activities are: (1) Offering IT summer camps for middle school girls, and professional development workshops for middle school teachers and counselors; (2) Teaching sections of science classes from the perspective of IT, and starting a chapter of American Women in Computing (AWS) on campus; and (3) Partnering with local employers to develop streamlined education-to-employment programs. The project increases the knowledge base of how to recruit and retain female students, and how to quickly make them post K-12 ready. It creates a curriculum that demonstrates interdependency between technology and science, and it develops procedures for establishing robust job shadowing and internship programs. The best practices established through this project can be extended to other STEM disciplines and technician training programs. Through a partnership with the Washington Center of Excellence for Information and Computing Technology; the project results will be available to instructors at all of the 34 community and technical colleges in that state. Through the ATE Mentor Connect program and the SC ATE Center, the results will be globally available on the SCATE.org and TeachingTechnician.org websites.