Statewide Engineering Technology Industry Advisory Board

The first meeting of the Statewide Engineering Technology Industry Advisory Committee (SETIAB) took place on Wednesday, March 29, 2023, the evening prior to the Spring Engineering Technology Forum (ET Forum). 

The goal of the new SETIAB is to ensure that the more than twenty ET programs in the state continue to meet the rapidly evolving needs of industry and to raise the visibility of the skills and competencies of the program completers and to raise the visibility of the A.S. Engineering Technology degree program. 

The initial board has industry representatives from 6 state and community colleges and will focus on reviewing the advanced manufacturing competencies, recruiting additional members from other colleges, and setting up its organizational structure and bylaws.  The board will consist of at least one industry representative who supports a college ET advisory board, a member from FloridaMakes and a representative from the K12 education system in Florida and one from the Florida Department of Education’s Adult and Career Education Division. Non-voting members of the new advisory board include representatives from college programs that have an industry member of the board and representatives from FLATE. In the coming months, the college leadership and FLATE will be recruiting SETIAB board members from other colleges.

Several of the industry representatives attended the ET Forum the following day and met many of the ET educators from around the state and shared in the discussions about the ET program curriculum, new courses, lab equipment and student issues.  This board is an imitative of the NSF Engineering Technology adjustment grant awarded to FloridaMakes and four college partners (Polk State College, College of Central Florida, Daytona State College and St. Petersburg College) in 2022 to update the AS ET Curriculum and expand the engagement of industry in the program Statewide. 

The new Statewide ET Industry Advisory Board is also supported by the Florida Department of Education Perkins Leadership grant to FloridaMakes supporting FLATE. Look for a new page highlighting the SETIAB on FLATE’s website soon and if you have any questions, please contact Dr. Mori Toosi (mtoosi@polk.edu) or Dr. Marilyn Barger (Marilyn.barger@flate.org).