The San Diego Educational GIS Consortium, comprised of San Diego State University, San Diego Mesa College (part of the San Diego Community College District), and San Diego City Schools, is developing a scalable GIS skills certification program to prepare students for entry into a range of jobs in GIS-related fields and for career advancement. The goals of the project are to encourage underrepresented high school and community college students to pursue careers in GIS, and to provide a ladder of certification and education that enable students to work in GIS-related positions while pursuing further training and education. The Consortium is developing GIS skills certifications, designed to meet industry and employer needs, that can be combined to provide an articulated educational program. These certificates build on each other and feed into an associate's degree in GIS for more comprehensive technical training, a bachelor's degree, and advanced degrees in the field. The Consortium is developing a standards-based curriculum aligned across the three educational levels, including Web-based introductory programs in GIS to encourage students to pursue careers in the field and enhance enrollment in technician training and educational programs. The Co-PIs are creating articulation agreements that ensure that students are able to progress efficiently through the skills certificate and more traditional educational programs, and are training college faculty and secondary school teachers to teach the introductory courses and use GIS materials in their classes. The project also develops new internships and field experiences for students in the skills certificate and technician training programs.
The Intellectual Merit of this project lies in the development of standards-based GIS curricula and certification programs available to both traditional and non-traditional students. The Broader Impacts of this project lie in the development of seamless articulation agreements from the high school level through to university degree programs, and in training teachers at the high school and community college level to teach in this new program.
