Students' Perspectives on the Award-Winning A.S. Degree in Engineering Technology

Over the past few months FLATE has published a couple of articles spotlighting students who have graduated from the consortium of colleges across Florida offering the two-year A.S. degree in Engineering Technology (A.S.E.T). The main objective behind this effort was to stay connected to students who had graduated from the program and keep track of their educational and career pathways. It also served as a metric to gauge how the A.S.E.T degree, the program and the curriculum framework have equipped students with the skills needed to succeed at the workplace and in the long run helped carve their careers and achieve bigger goals.

This month as a fresh crop of students are getting prepared to graduate from the program, we bend the trajectory, ever so slightly, in gauging the perspectives of current students about the A.S.E.T program, the courses and curriculum and how the program is preparing them for the workplace. Steven Hier, Arthur Kucharski, Brenda Marquez Facio, Cassin Murdock and Joseph Hinchman are students currently pursuing an A.S.E.T degree and/or taking an ET degree-related course at the State College of Florida (SCF). Most of these students stumbled upon the ET program while looking online for a college that suited them, caught their interest and/or they were referred to take an ET-related course by a professor. “Our world is relying more and more on technology and it is fascinating learning how things really work” said Joseph Hinchman who is looking to graduate with a degree in technology management in 2022. No matter their journey, a common allure for most of them was their interest in technology, in building a tangible product that has real-world applications, programming and/or their basic interest in learning how things work. Steven Hier says his interest in the A.S.E.T degree/STEM-related subjects lay in his interest to be part of something bigger and/or be part of the creative process to innovative a revolutionary product. Brenda Facio’s interest in the ET degree was sparked by her interest in manufacturing which she says is the culmination of all production processes that brings ideas and products to life.

In looking at the degree and the curriculum framework, the two-year A.S.E.T degree is designed to address the growing needs of manufacturers and high technology industries. “My favorite class is the Intro to Electronics class” said Cassin Murdock. He says it is the most hands-on class that not only gives him tangible knowledge but is directly tied to his career aspirations. Steven Hier’s favorite class is SolidWorks as it gives him the ability to expand on his knowledge base to create 3D objects and put his skills to test. Joseph Hinchman’s favorite part of the program is learning how to program robots. For example, he says it has been interesting diving into learning new programming language and performing exercises on the virtual machine during the Security Engineering class.

The award winning  A.S.E.T degree, that was developed by FLATE—the Florida-based National Science Foundation Center of Excellence, is currently offered in 24 community and state colleges across Florida is a cohesive, comprehensive program that focuses on a set of core classes and skills that align with the national Manufacturing Skill Standards Council (MSSC) certified production technician certification. Arthur Kucaharski feels optimistic about the things he is learning as part of his program/degree as he feels it can be applied across various industries and careers from IT to marketing. Given the attributes of the degree, earning an A.S.E.T degree “will be useful in finding a tech-oriented job as it has better prepared me for a career in tech” said Joseph Hinchman, who is looking to graduate in 2022.

For a full list of state and community colleges offer the A.S.E.T degree visit the Made in Florida page, or contact Dr. Marilyn Barger at barger@fl-ate.org. You can also connect with the consortium of engineering technology graduates across Florida on LinkedIn.

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