42nd ET Forum at Suncoast Technical College - Sarasota

The 42^nd state-wide Forum on Engineering Technology (ET Forum) held on March 28^th and 29^th was hosted by the Suncoast Technical College – Sarasota Main Campus. This was the first visit to Suncoast Technical College which provides quality technical education to meet workforce to address the issues concerning our field of technical education development and community needs with their programs in automation and manufacturing. This spring forum has been one of the most attended since 1996 with 70 participants from 17 FL State and community colleges, three technical colleges and three state universities. The Forum provided ET and related discipline area faculty administrators and educators direct interaction with industry professionals and Florida Dept. of Education program supervisors. 

The Florida Engineering Technology Leadership Council and the Engineering Technology Forum was established in April 1997 at Seminole Community College (now Seminole State College).  Since 1996 the ET Forum has been hosted in 23 Colleges around Florida.

The membership includes the department heads and the leaders of the technology programs in the State of Florida. The Forum is a viable means for industry and educators across the state to meet regularly to discuss issues of the educating of tomorrow’s advanced manufacturing workforce. The Forum is building capacity in faculty across the state and securing a community of practice around manufacturing and technology education in Florida.

 This year theme of this Forum was innovations using technology and best practices related to technology education, AS to BSET articulation, industry collaborations, grant initiatives, professional development, issues forum, and included some of new projects and updates. Thursday sessions included topics such as technical trends and vendors’ round table, Florida department of education updates, PathTech LIFE updates with its new PathTech LISTEN grant, college updates, industrial and workforce roundtable, Suncoast technical college technical tour, articulations AS/BSET and new articulations. In addition, great topics were presented such as IPC-connecting electronics industries - educating/training the next generation, smart automation certification alliance (SACA), and National Coalition of Certification Centers (NC3). 

On Friday morning, the forum continued with more college issues, with discussions on how lab fees and what can and cannot be included. Other topics included - advanced technology updates, FLATE updates, and smart factory and eLearning. The meeting summary with more details, will be posted on FLATE’s wiki

 PathTech LISTEN, is a newly awarded national interview study of Engineering Technology graduates by the University of South Florida-Department of Sociology. Currently the group is finalizing the interview questions and protocols. This survey study will focus on both educational and career pathways. For more information contact Dr. Will Tyson (wtyson@usf.edu).

 ET Forum Survey results

A total of 30 attendees responded to the survey the following: an impressive 100% of attendees who responded to the survey said that they are planning to use the information presented at this workshop and they will use the information they have gained with a colleague or peers and that they will recommend the forum to other colleagues, 89% of respondents agreed that the forum was an excellent overall professional development value. 

Special Thank you to the 2019 spring ET Forum sponsors for their generous support!

Bluegrass Educational Technologies, Hyatt Consulting Group, D. C. Jaeger Corporation, Learning Labs, Southern Educational Systems, Technical Training Aids, Suncoast Technical College

Presentations and material for the ET forum are available online at Made in Florida 2019 Spring ET Forum at SCSC. For more information, please contact Marilyn Barger (mbarger@flate.org).

Building Partnerships & Growing Our Florida Manufacturing Ecosystem

For FLATE, technician education in Florida is a continuum that blends the effects of Career and Technician Education (CTE), post secondary education (Florida's Technical Colleges and Florida's State Colleges), apprentices (Florida Dept of Education), nationally recognized workforce readiness credentials (MSSC-CPT), and specific manufacturing improvement instruction (FloridaMakes).  The concept is to have manufacturing related career pathways available as a student's skill and knowledge sets develop.  Providing good options to students as they progress will lead to the well-rounded, work-ready technical workforce Florida’s manufacturers need. 

This month, FLATE and FloridaMakes launched a partnership project to connect Florida's regional manufacturers with their State, community and technical colleges.  The Regional Workforce Education Workshops focus specifically on connecting State College Engineering and Advanced Manufacturing Technology programs with Florida manufacturers and their Florida’s Regional Manufacturing Associations. Working directly with FloridaMakes’ Director of Network Engagement and Director of Manufacturing Talent Development, the goal of the regional workshops is to bring manufacturers and college educators together to explain each organization’s assets, needs, and any barriers that limit their collaborative work.

Each of the 10 Workshops shops distributed around the State will also define a project that the RMA, educational institution/s and others can pursue together within a six-month time period. We are excited about this opportunity to bring our educational partners at 26 state and community colleges together with the large network of manufacturers currently engaged in with the Regional Associations and FloridaMakes.  In the end, we hope to build stronger collaborations between all participating partners to develop to enhance the manufacturing ecosystem in Florida. We will be back in the coming months with updates and the results of the regional projects, and the best practices that are revealed. If you are interested in participating in any way, don’t hesitate to contact, Dr. Barger (barger@fl-ate.org).

Amalie Motor Oil Hosts the Hillsborough Manufacturing Alliance

The Hillsborough County Manufacturing Alliance was formed by the county several years ago to support local manufacturers with particular focus on their workforce needs.  Funding from the Alliance has been used to support infrastructure and equipment at local educational institutions (high schools and post-secondary), subsidized industry training, and promotion of Manufacturing Career pathways. Periodically, the Alliance meets visits local manufacturers.  This month the group visited the headquarters of Amalie Oil located on the deep-water port in Tampa. It’s the largest privately held independent blender of motor oils and industrial lubricants in North America. The state-of-the-art production facility has some of the fastest and most sophisticated bottle blow-molding, blending, and packaging equipment available.  Since its beginnings in 1903 in Pennsylvania, Amalie has been focused on innovation, quality and customer service.  

Amalie has expanded and now has facilities at the ports in Charleston, S.C. and in Los Angeles, CA. Together the facilities produce over 3000 distinct products that include a full line of automotive, fleet, industrial, and specialty lubricants and ship them to every state in the U.S. as well as over 100 countries.  Products support all levels of consumers from individual consumers to large industrial fleets and they are shipped in every size container imaginable from 8 oz bottle, 5-gallon buckets, to bulk containers and they travel the world by truck, rail and/or ship.  Since 1903, Amalie is truly...Better than they have to be! 

Amalie employees nearly 500 people, with the majority of them working directly in the production, processing and packaging of their oil and lubricant products.  They need highly-trained technicians to install, operate, maintain and repair their equipment. With automation and system integration being added to their facility on a regular basis, they need technicians with programming, communication and hands on electrical and mechanical skills.  The educational partners of the Hillsborough Manufacturing Alliance are committed to helping Amalie develop their local talent pipeline.

CORD's new Labs and Real-World Math Applications

Applications series demonstrates the relevance of mathematics to everyday life and the workplace through hands-on labs and contextual exercises. These volumes supplement CORD’s four core mathematics textbooks: Prealgebra, Algebra 1, Algebra 2, and Geometry. The labs provide valuable opportunities for students to collect and use data in multiple contexts, practice and deepen their problem-solving skills, and work in teams. The applications link mathematics to the workplace through problem-solving exercises from five industry sectors including manufacturing. Learn more!