Federation for Advanced Manufacturing Education (FAME) has Chapter at Daytona State College

The Federation for Advanced Manufacturing Education (FAME) (https://fame-usa.com) provides global workforce development through solid technical training, integration of manufacturing core competencies, intensive professional practices, and intentional hands-on experience to build the future of the modern manufacturing industry. Led by manufacturers and supported by education partners, FAME establishes a best-in-class curriculum encompassing hands-on and virtual programming that provides authentic, tangible solutions to the industry’s toughest challenges in skills training and workforce development across various industries within manufacturing. FAME was created by Toyota and moved to the Manufacturing Institute for national scaling in 2019.

Today, the Manufacturing Institute, as the workforce development and education partner of the National Association of Manufacturers, is proud to manage FAME USA as it continues to grow across the country with the support of more than 400 manufacturers. The FAME model facilitates employer-led partnerships between a company and local educational institutions and establishes a channel for recruiting diverse, high-achieving, and career-oriented students. Once established, the cooperative of local employers that make up the FAME Chapter will generate a continuous pipeline of skilled technicians through the AMT program.

FAME helps students become highly skilled, globally competitive, well-rounded, and sought-after talent that can meet the unique needs and challenges of today’s modern manufacturing workforce. Every year, FAME graduates transition into well-paying, diverse career pathways in critical disciplines across the manufacturing industry and country. The college partner must be willing to work with the Chapter to ensure adherence to the FAME model--which includes delivering the technical knowledge, teaching and supporting the Manufacturing Core Exercises, and instilling Professional Behaviors in each cohort of FAME students.

Daytona State College has adopted the FAME model. It has mapped its E.T. curriculum to FAME outcomes (https://daytonastate.edu/academic-departments/college-of-business-engineering-and-technology/school-of-computer-science/fame.html). The earn-while-you-learn model provides students the pathway to earn an industry-recognized degree while gaining valuable experience at a sponsoring company. Program graduates earn an Engineering Technology Associate of Science degree in two years and log approximately 1,800 paid on-the-job hours at their sponsoring company. Students participate in the 40+ hour per week training program where they attend college twice a week and work three days a week (at least 24 hours) at their sponsoring company.

To learn more about FAME, you can attend one of three scheduled sessions (https://calendly.com/jtonydavis/fame-overview) on October 30th, -11 a.m., November 9th- 2:00 p.m., or November 14th-3:00 p.m.

2023 Fall Forum on Engineering Technology

The 51st state-wide Forum on Engineering Technology held on September 28th and 29th was hosted by St. Johns River State College (SJRSC) at Orange Park, FL. The forum was well attended with 55 (8 virtual) participants from 15 Florida state and community colleges and three universities.

The Forum on Engineering Technology (ET Forum) has served as an important vehicle for bringing together Florida’s diverse and geographically dispersed community with common issues and challenges. With the support of the Florida Department of Education (FDOE), FLATE works with the ET Forum network to strengthen the consortium, share its administrative activities and projects, provide professional development, bring industry and academia together, and engage in statewide FDOE curriculum frameworks review and reform. Over the years, it has become a true community of practice. 

The Forum meets twice a year and has convened fifty-one times, at over 25 different Florida colleges. The ET Forum, with FLATE guidance and leadership, continues to grow strong by recruiting interested colleges, hosting industry professionals from companies near the host institution, providing professional development for emerging and relevant technologies, participating in FDOE statewide curriculum frameworks reform and change related to ET disciplines, and providing extensive networking and opportunities for sharing and collaboration amongst colleges.

The fall ET Forum included two days filled with key topics, discussions, and updates. On the first day, topics included:

• a round table discussion with topics including Fusion 360, Industry 4.0, recruiting faculty, adjuncts, and students, best practices for advisory committees, and faculty loads; 
• the FDOE reported on new program developments including the updated CPalms.org site - the State of Florida's official online toolbox source for standards information, curriculum modules, and course descriptions; 
• updates on the Manufacturing Skill Standards Council (MSSC) Certified Production Technician (CPT) certification articulation to the ET A.S.; 
• an education vendor round table discussion on current technical education trends; 
• St. Johns River State College ET program’s highlights and a tour of the ET Labs and facilities;
• an industrial-economic workforce panel focused on new technologies that will impact and benefit the manufacturing sector; and
• ET state college updates. 

In addition, the forum incorporated guest speakers with relevant key topics including Advanced Robotics in Manufacturing (ARM) Institute, and Cybersecurity for Manufacturing.

The 2nd day of the forum continued with the discussion of college issues, followed by NSF Grant updates that included a member recruitment request to join the Statewide Engineering Technology Advisory Board (SETIAB). SETIAB was created to engage manufacturers with college Associate in Science in Engineering Technology (A.S. ET) skills and certificates, Automation College Credit Certificate (CCC) review, and the creation of the ET A.S. Degree program database (core and specializations). 

Also on day 2, distinguished guest speakers and key relevant topics included:

• Cobots with AI, from the University of Florida, and
• Technology Transfer University (T2U) from NASA-John F. Kennedy Space Center

The Florida Engineering Technology Forum serves as a model organization for other disciplines and career clusters in Florida as well as technical disciplines in other states. Presentation and recordings are available at ET Forum Google Drive and FLATE.PBWorks/Presentations. Of the 16 evaluation survey responses received (13 in-person and 3 virtual attendees), nearly 80% (13) of respondents agreed that the Forum offered excellent overall professional development and networking value and 100% of the survey responders (16) would recommend the Forum to others.

Special thanks to SJRSC for hosting the ET Forum and the educational vendors for sponsoring the Forum.

• Technical Training Aids
• ARM Institute
• Bluegrass Educational Technologies
• D.C. Jaeger Corporation
• JAR Systems
• ROOTS Education 
• Southern Educational Systems 
• Learning Labs
• Ultimate 3D Printing

For more information on the Forum and/or A.S.E.T degree visit https://fl-ate.org/programs/e-t-forum/.

FLATE Speed Networking Event in Duval County

As the FLATE team travels around the state, working with educators and manufacturers, we often hear the industry say they would connect with educators but don't have a personal contact in their area. The same is often true for educators, who would welcome a presentation or tour from a manufacturer but don't know a manufacturer personally.

To help create meaningful and lasting connections with educators and the manufacturing industry, FLATE works with communities to host Speed Networking events. At the end of the event, every educator will have a personal connection, business card, and contact from each manufacturer to help with industry tours, mentorships, classroom visits, etc. The industry representatives can build a regional group of educators to work on talent development, manufacturing career awareness, mentorship, business advisory committees, and sponsorships. Following each event, follow-up surveys are sent periodically to all participants to document the interaction between the educators and Industry to benchmark the number of events held and students impacted.

The latest Speed Networking event was held in partnership with the First Coast Manufacturing Association (FCMA) Workforce Committee at Florida State College at Jacksonville (FCSJ) on October 16, 2023,11AM - 1PM. Over 40 people attended the FCMA Speed Networking event from schools and companies in Duval and St. Johns counties. Each educator met with each industry person for about five minutes to learn about each other, exchange contact info, and build a professional relationship.

The event was a huge success and feedback from the attendees was very positive. The participants were so engaged in talking with each other that they didn't want to rotate to the next table each time the timer went off. We look forward to monitoring the many outreach events that will be created due to these new professional connections and the impact that it will have on students' understanding of the career options in manufacturing.