On-Time and Drug Free

“On-Time and Drug Free” is often the first pass response to the open-ended question to a manufacturer: “What do you expect of a new employee”.  Important qualities of a new employee but not new or needed information.  FLATE’s quest to help structure the CTE and State College system education options into a platform to create a world-class manufacturing workforce in Florida goes way beyond the high level of social skills and work ethics standards expected of that workforce.  Avenues for instilling these qualities are already resident in the nationally recognized manufacturing related credentials included within the Florida Department of Education guided career paths.  In addition, the rigor and continuous demands of the Associate of Science degree in Engineering Technology assure an employer that the path to needed work based social and interaction skills are in place and practiced by every graduate.  The “Drug Free” requirement reflects a serious social problem at the national level that a technical education structure can only indirectly addresses.  Perhaps the nation is ready to address this issue.  However, students that do earn rigorous nationally recognized credentials and the Engineering Technology degree also possess an internal drive that fosters a drug free lifestyle. 

If Florida is to create the workforce to meet a global manufacturing mission, FLATE needs information that has moved beyond this first tire, “On-time Drug Free” response category.  This year FLATE and FloridaMakes will interact with manufacturers and regional manufacturing Associations to drill down into the skill set expectations of manufacturing workers that will increase process efficiency and product quality.  This exploration requires extra energy from all parties but the increased details will refine the processes Florida uses to produce the fundamental non-competitive technical expertise necessary at all levels of manufacturing.  Florida has a great future in global manufacturing when the needed skills development is transferred to the education system.  FLATE can help with that transfer into the education system but manufacturers have to identify the critical skills.  If you can help, let us know. Contact us at flate@fl-ate.org - anytime.