Since its inception, FLATE wanted a technical education
system that would lead to the creation of a world class manufacturing
supportive workforce. This lofty target was
understood to require many puzzle pieces to fit together. For FLATE's part, the puzzle pieces focus on
providing technician career paths that assure workforce excellences in
Florida's manufacturing sectors. The
first phase toward world class status was to establish a structure within the
Florida State College system that would be one of the vehicles for change in
the way manufacturing supportive technologies were taught in Florida.
That first phase target task is completed. The A.S. Degree in Engineering Technology
(E.T.) developed by FLATE and now supported by the Florida Department of
Education and executed within 20 colleges in the Florida State College System is
a statewide uniform platform that establishes the core technical skills and
knowledge expectations of every E.T. graduate in Florida. In addition, the degree provides each
participating college the ability to focus on E.T. specializations that bring
graduates to a higher skill level in specific technical areas that are important
to manufacturers within their local college's service region. This combination of fundamental and advanced
specified manufacturing supportive skills and knowledge puts Florida on the
path to a world class education system for future technicians in manufacturing
that has multiple career path options for all E.T. graduates.
Careers in manufacturing exist and are a topic for a future
FLATE Focus but these options don't guarantee a world class status for Florida
manufacturing. Workforce excellence does
generate that assurance. This puzzle
piece has a broader base of responsibility than colleges offering technician
creation degrees. However, colleges
still have a significant excellence component contribution to offer. The E.T. faculty expertise and E.T. curriculum
content has to be repeatedly reviewed for manufacturing relevance. Procedures for both of these tasks are in
place and executed. The E.T. curriculum
is reviewed at the Florida Department of Education (FLDoE) level every three
years. The curriculum content review
requires a (FLDoE) appointed committee (half from manufacturing and E.T.
faculty) with statewide membership to submit recommendations. The faculty expertise needed as new
manufacturing technologies become reality on the manufacturing floor is
accomplished through two FLATE facilitated faculty development mechanisms.
The first, the Florida Engineering Technology Forum, is a
twice a year gathering of faculty and administrators in two-year manufacturing
supportive A.S. programs that provides important updates and changes dictated
by Florida legislative actions as well as Forum sessions driven by subject
matter experts. Resources provided by
outside funding including the National Science Foundation Advanced
Technological Education (NSF-ATE) program represents the second mechanism that
E.T. faculty expertise is expanded to new technologies. FLATE provides NSF-ATE based assistance as
well as actively supporting college faculty efforts to write proposals to the
NSF-ATE program for grant funds that result in faculty involvement in
professional development technical courses and conferences.
Now, to borrow and modify a song lyric from a very famous Broadway
musical, "FLATE's has gone about as far as it can go" by itself. Florida has a stable but flexible technical
skills and knowledge pathway that leads to careers as technicians and future
work in supervision and/or engineering. Florida
has vibrant Career and Technical Education programs. Florida has mechanisms to keep technical
faculty "on top of their game" but that isn't enough to create a
world class manufacturing workforce.
There are more parts to the puzzle.
Those parts require partnerships and the key partnership in this case
involves FLATE and FloridaMakes. FloridaMakes
brings two important puzzle components, RMA and MEP (both bring their
manufacturers and partners) into play.
If these puzzle parts, RMA and MEP, are a puzzle themselves that's another
reason to catch the next FLATE Focus where FloridaMakes's role in the quest for
work class manufacturing recognition is explored. 
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