Infusing General Education Into Technical Education (IGNITE)

Strong general education core is considered vital to both liberal arts and technical programs. The Infusing GeN-ed Into Technical Education (IGNITE) Project assumes that, with thoughtful and collaborative practices, skill based and conceptual competencies identified within the general education core courses can be successfully infused into a variety of technical programs. This infusion allows students to learn and apply the competencies of the general education core in a hands-on, technical environment, while meeting degree requirements in a manner that is timely and relevant to their needs, ultimately increasing retention rates.

The long-term goal of this project is to increase the conceptual knowledge, retention and persistence of Applied Technology students with the infusion of general education competencies into the technical programs at the college and programs at community college partners. The immediate objective of this project is to advance efforts at the college to infuse mathematics competencies into the welding curriculum by refining the model at the college, testing it at a partnering institution, and fully evaluating it for possible expansion into other general education and technology programs. By effectively infusing general education mathematics competencies into the curriculum of the welding curriculum, students are persisting longer and have a more anchored knowledge base because of interest and relevance.

Project IGNITE is the first effort at general education infusion within the West Virginia Community and Technical College System. It meets the needs of students, the community, and industry and is being supported and monitored by the system for future implementation across the state. Literature to support the infusion of general education in technical programs has begun to appear, but there is still a great need to develop and evaluate processes that effectively accomplish it. IGNITE has the potential to outline a model on how to incorporate required general education competencies into technical programs of study in a manner that encourages learning best suited to the needs of students enrolled in hands-on, skill based technical programming.