FLATE Visits College Partners: Lake-Sumter State College & College of Central Florida

College of Central Florida

FLATE continues to visit college partners and meet with faculty around the state. The representatives from Florida Advanced Technological Education Center (FLATE), Dr. Marilyn Barger and Ernie Friend, plan to visit all 23 colleges with Engineering Technology (ET) and ET-related programs. So far, they have visited fifteen colleges in north, central, and south Florida. Lake-Sumter State College (LSSC) and College of Central Florida (CCF) are the latest schools visited in November 2022.

Increasing enrollments, finding quailed faculty, and engaging industry partnerships are challenges for colleges and many post-secondary education institutions in Florida and across the country. FLATE and FloridaMakes are committed to working on both challenges by finding creative ways to connect schools with potential students and using the FloridaMakes network to identify new companies to work with colleges. 

Lake-Sumter State College

With more school visits on the schedule, a complete picture of Florida colleges’ value in workforce development for the manufacturing sector will become even more evident. A sincere appreciation goes out to all the colleges visited so far for sharing their achievements and challenges and allowing FLATE to partner in their success.

Special thanks to all the faculty and staff that collaborated with us during the visits. The team at Lake-Sumter State College included Dr. Amy Albee-Levine, Dean of Workforce Development; Christopher Sargent, Associate Dean of Workforce Development; Alberto Luma, Instructor of Engineering Technology; and Willfredo Laiz, Instructor of Engineering Technology. The team at the College of Central Florida included Sam Ajlani, Program Director, Engineering Technology, and Saley Abraham, Faculty.