In the Intermountain West, the demand for skilled technicians in advanced manufacturing has significantly increased. Manufacturing is the fourth largest employment sector in Utah and the largest sector in Northern Utah. Both large and small industries throughout the region continue to automate their facilities. Many manufacturers in the Intermountain West are having difficulty finding enough highly skilled technicians to fill available positions. There are also limited programs across the region who offer programs that can adequately educate and prepare enough future technicians for the workforce. To keep up with the industry demand, Bridgerland Technical College recognized the need to increase the quality, capacity, and especially the quantity of skilled technicians in the region. Increasing the pipeline of automated manufacturing and electronic engineering technicians became of utmost importance to the economic vitality of the Intermountain West. 

To increase the pipeline of highly skilled technicians Bridgerland Technical College developed  curriculum, increased recruitment, increased retention, and disseminated professional development. 

Curriculum Development - Over the life of the grant, Bridgerland focused on redesigning the existing lockstep-teacher-centered curriculum to make it both student-centered, hands-on, and competency-based. The existing curriculum had very few audio-visual demonstrations and ill-defined rubrics. Ten courses were redesigned to better meet the needs of teachers and students. We developed 81 audiovisual lectures, 209 project modeling videos, and 257 industry-centered rubrics throughout all ten courses. These developments allowed students to move at their own pace, review, and make up missed lecture work, and watch clear modeling for project-based labs. The redeveloped rubrics clearly outlined assignment expectations and helped students recognize how assignments foster the required skills they will need when they enter the workforce. Ultimately, this refined curriculum allowed Bridgerland Technical College to increase the number of students who could be taught simultaneously in advanced manufacturing programs. 

Recruitment - Over the life of the grant, high school student participation increased by over 45% (over 200 students) through the following recruitment activities: a) maintaining and expanding our dual enrollment high school partnerships from 8 to 17, b) supporting over 12 high schools, colleges, and universities to adopt and adapt our program in their area, and c) creating two industry tour videos to be used in a marketing campaign and used as resources for high school counselors. 

Retention - Over the life of the grant, we also increased retention by over 30% through the following retention activities such as: a) conducting annual industry tours of local manufacturers with high school students, counselors, and teachers and b) leveraging college student success coordinators to contact high school students to encourage conversion into the full-time program after graduation.

Professional Development - Over the life of the grant, professional development activities included a) developing and sharing low-cost lab materials, b) conducting our annual two-week professional development for high school teacher facilitators and college faculty, c) maintaining a LMS curriculum repository for partner leaders, d) conducting annual meetings for educational partnership leaders, and e) uploading ten courses to the ATE Central repository for other instructors across the nation to adapt into their programs. 

The following courses were uploaded to the ATE Central repository for dissemination:

• Programmable Logic Controllers 1

• Electrical Motor Controls

• Basic Electrical Theory and Wiring

• Microcontrollers 1

• Microcontrollers 2

• Introduction to Industrial Robotics

• 3D Modeling

• Electronics Assembly & Soldering

• Fluid Power Pneumatics

• Automation Technician Basics

Through addressing our project goals over the life of the grant, Bridgerland Technical College has increased the quality, capacity, and especially the quantity of students heading into the Automated Manufacturing industry. 

This project made a significant impact on the capacity and quality of advanced manufacturing technicians statewide by directly impacting high school and college students, Bridgerland Technical College, career and technical educators in the region, and our industry partners. The benefits to students were: (1) improved curriculum, (2) higher retention rates, (3) access to a pathway into a career into advanced manufacturing technologies, and (4) strong connections to local industry leaders. The benefits to the Bridgerland Technical College were: (1) improved curriculum, (2) new recruitment strategies, (3) enhanced tracking/retention, (4) advanced leadership development in project management/grant writing, and (5) a pathway for the college to become a regional training leader in advanced manufacturing. The benefits to regional career and technical institutions/teachers were: (1) low cost training materials, (2) curricular materials, (3) professional development, and (4) development of a regional community of practice. The benefits to industry partners were: (1) a growing number of students pursuing careers in automated manufacturing, and (2) a curriculum more reflective of industry needs.

Last Modified: 08/29/2022
Modified by: Mason Lefler