MFG DAY and Month Happenings in Tampa Bay

The month of October saw over 30 student tours in Pinellas and Hillsborough Counties, but many other events celebrating Manufacturing in Florida also took place.  Here are a few highlights!

October 4- Upper Tampa Bay-Florida SunCoast Manufacturing Association (UTBMA) Sixth Annual Advanced Manufacturing Awards Ceremony at Nielsen Global Technology, Oldsmar.

The UTBMA is dedicated to serving the unique business and networking needs of the approximately 400 manufacturers located in the region. The 2018 awards ceremony recognized regional manufacturers for their exemplary labor in manufacturing innovation and for the first time outstanding students and alumni were also recognized. During this event, FLATE’s dear friend Roy Sweatman from Southern Manufacturing Technologies received the distinguished 2018 Service Award. The 2018 Student Excellence award was presented to Michelle Puentes from Hillsborough Community College and Ryder Fizpatrick from St. Petersburg. Michelle and Ryder were recognized for their outstanding perseverance, leadership and academic achievement in pursuit of a career in advanced technology and manufacturing. 

October 9- Manufacturing Alliance of Hillsborough County M-Pact Meeting hosted by Southern Manufacturing Technologies (SMT), Tampa. 
The Manufacturing Alliance of Hillsborough County is working to build a better future for our region's manufacturing industry. Through M-Pact meeting series, manufacturers connect to address the latest trends and challenges facing our industry. This M-Pact meeting, hosted by SMT, focused on improving the talent pipeline and provided an provided an overview of National and State apprenticeship opportunities for manufacturers by Richard (Ted) Norman, Florida Department of Education’s State Director of Apprenticeship, Division of Career and Adult Education in Hillsborough County. In addition, a local apprenticeship model was presented by Steve Cona III, President/CEO of Associated Builders and Contractors Florida Gulf Coast Chapter, and a SMT machinist apprentice Robert Falor spoke to manufacturers and educators about his apprenticeship program and life experience.

As the manufacturing sector’s most passionate advocates, Manufacturing Alliance of Hillsborough County are committed to changing the perception of modern manufacturing in Tampa Bay, simplifying the path to a successful manufacturing career, fostering critical connections across the manufacturing community, and guiding individuals and our community towards enduring prosperity. For more information about Hillsborough Alliance, visit http://madeinhillsborough.org/

October 18- BAMA to Tour BELAC LLC, a Chromalloy Company, Oldsmar. BELAC, in conjunction with other Chromalloy resources, reverse engineers aircraft engine components, also manufactures components on a build to print basis for several OEM customers. BELAC's facility houses several unique manufacturing processes, such as dual-wheel grinding, EDM drilling, NDT, heat treat, and shot peen. 

October 17- Hillsborough County Manufacturing Month proclamation, Tampa. The Hillsborough County Board of County Commissioners presented proclamations to declare October 5, 2018 as Florida Manufacturing Day and October 2018 as Florida Manufacturing Month in Hillsborough County.

  


October 28- Fourth Annual Manufacturing 5K Run or Walk for Education, Safety Harbor. All proceeds from the event will benefit deserving future manufacturing workforce students. This includes degree-seeking students, as well as accredited technical school students. Thank you for helping surpass last’s year’s donation of $24,102.30.

Florida’s Engineering Technology Community Begins the Process of Updating their ET Curriculum Frameworks

Last Thursday and Friday, representatives from 17 of the 28 Florida State and Community Colleges attended the Florida Forum on Engineering Technology.  Several colleges had multiple representatives and these college faculty and administrators were joined by several industry partners; regional workforce development professionals; technology vendors (who also provide food and beverages) and, for the first time, representatives from 2 Florida Technical Colleges (the public institutions that offer post-secondary training programs).  

 

Thursday’s 63 attendees participated in the college roundtable updates; heard the latest results from the NSF ATE PathTech LIFE project which is working to define the characteristics of students enrolled in a variety of engineering technology programs across the nation and in Florida as a specific subset. The Fall 2019 ET Forum was the 41^st “ET Forum” held since its beginning in the late 1990’s that grew out of a need to respond to new state legislation regarding statewide articulation of associate of science degrees. The Forum has grown to become an important vehicle of change, for unprecedented sharing, camaraderie, unity, fun, professional development and growth. All 17 of the colleges in attendance plus 6 others (not able to come) offer a program of study under the Engineering Technology A.S. Degree. This could be the A.S. degree itself with any of its 10 specialized tracks or one of over 20 shorter term College Credit Certificates (Florida’s defined CCCs). More information about this degree can be found our websites: FL-ATE.org and MadeInFlorida.org or by contacting Dr. Barger (barger@fl-ate.org).

Of special note, this 41^st meeting provided dedicated time for the college attendees to begin the review of the current Florida state curriculum frameworks for Engineering Technology and the 10 specializations.  Starting in mid-afternoon, college representatives worked through dinner until 7:30 pm focused on the frameworks of the ET core. Standards for the ET Core are shown in Table 1.  Many of the benchmarks under these standards were updated, deleted, combined, and several new were added.

Table 1. Curriculum Framework Standards for Engineering Technology Core

01.0   Demonstrate an understanding of industrial processes and material properties.

02.0   Generate and interpret computer-aided drawings.

03.0   Demonstrate a fundamental understanding of electricity and electronics.

04.0   Demonstrate an understanding of industrial safety, health, and environmental requirements.

05.0   Demonstrate proficiently using quality assurance methods and quality control concepts.

06.0   Demonstrate proficiency in using tools, instruments and testing devices.

07.0   Demonstrate basic troubleshooting skills.

08.0   Demonstrate appropriate communication skills.

09.0   Demonstrate appropriate math skills.

10.0   Demonstrate an understanding of modern business practices and strategies.

11.0       Demonstrate employability skills.

The exercise continued on Friday as smaller groups worked their way through many of the curriculum framework standards for the ten specializations.

State supervisor for Manufacturing, Bob Blevins and the FLDOE Director of Apprenticeship, Ted Norman facilitated this first step of the tri-annual review process. The FLDOE will compile the suggested changes in the coming months. Once compiled, those documents will be sent to the colleges for approval to be sure all changes are captured. Once those updates have been captured, the draft curriculum frameworks will be sent back to the colleges which must review these updates with their industry partners.  Each college is expected to do this either by email or face-to-face during one of their scheduled advisory committee meetings in the spring of 2019. It is during this phase, that new benchmarks that related to new technologies and/or processes that industry has recently implemented will be added. This process, which keeps the Florida Career and Technical Education programs current and responsive to the industry’s workforce needs, is conducted on a 3-year cycle and is mandated by the Florida legislature.

Figure 1. FLDOE Curriculum Framework Review Process

It was an awesome experience working with so many enthusiastic college representatives to refine and update their programs. The work has additional facets and is ongoing. In addition to Framework review, colleges continually review alignments to industry standards and credentials, as well as to the academic courses and content that are used to address/teach the revised standards and benchmarks.  If you'd like to learn more about Florida's Curriulum Framework review process, please contact Dr. Marilyn Barger (barger@fl-ate.org) or check out the Florida Department of Education website, www.fldoe.org.