Industry
input is an important part of all career and technical education across this
country. Every three
years all of Florida Department of Education’s (FL DOE) curriculum frameworks are required
by Florida statute to be reviewed by a panel of educators and industry
representatives. This process is
conducted under the guidance of the state supervisors of each industry
clusters. Each spring, state supervisors contact institutions that offer the
programs to be reviewed and request participation. An easy-to-use review
document is distributed and participating institutions then recruit industry
partners and educators for other institutions to participate in the
review. Often the framework review document
is distributed via email, and the committee chair consolidates the input. To produce the consensus document that the FL
DOE requires, a final meeting, remote or face-to-face, is often conducted with
all participating committee members.
This
year, the specializations of the Engineering Technology (ET) degree, the
secondary and post-secondary Automation and Production Technology (APT)
frameworks were both reviewed by committees around the state. Many specific benchmarks were clarified, some
were deleted, others consolidated, etc.
The consensus documents will be distributed to all institutions around
the state that offer the degree specialization, or college credit certificates
that come from the specialization to be sure that they are aware of the changes
and possibly provide additional input. The 2014 version of the frameworks posted
on the FL DOE website will include all the updates.
This
process is just one of many opportunities that industry in Florida will get to
participate in the content of technical education programs. The curriculum
frameworks define student learning outcomes (knowledge and skills) for each
technical program of study. Other
avenues to participate are to review the state’s funding lists for industry
certifications, and suggesting new ones to add and existing ones to remove from
the list. This process takes place annually and is also done through the
educational institutions. Educators
should be asking their industry partners for input about important credentials
for their industry sector.
Another
way industry can get involved is by participating in focus groups and /or DACUM
processes for establishing new technical programs. The genesis of new technical
programs starts with industry approaching a secondary, or post-secondary
institution with a need. It might come directly from a company, a consortium of
companies, a related professional, or economic development organization, or
some combination of the three. No mater how it starts, the process is typically
the same. The local, regional and state needs for an educational program in the
proposed technical, or career area is established; industry is brought together
to define the skills and knowledge in a focus group, or DACUM process; and the
state curriculum framework for the new program is defined based on these
results. Once a framework is approved by
the FL DOE, institutions across the state are fee to adopt it and offer it if
there is a workforce need for completers in their area.
FLATE is happy to note that this year so many Florida manufacturers opened their doors to expose students to manufacturing as part of national manufacturing day in Florida. In addition to the tours and outreach activitites, manufacturing education programs need industry help with curriculum that is taught in the classrooms. While the energy is high, please consider joining an industry advisory committee of a local manufacturing education program in your are, or partner with local schools, technical institutes and
colleges and thereby participate in Florida’s career and technical education curriculum
processes and continue to make an impact in keeping/maintaining world-class standards of our manufacturing education programs. Your participation in any of the processes mentioned above (or
others) really helps keep materials that educators teach up-to-date and
relevant. It’s your future workforce we are educating; we always need and want
your input.
For more
information, or to participate in one of our industry driven initiatives
contact Dr. Marilyn Barger at barger@fl-ate.org.
You can also visit www.madeinflorida.org
and www.fl-ate.org.
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