Toledo Technology Academy Toledo's award winning Manufacturing Engineering Technology Program, located at the Libbey Skill Center, provides an effective school-to-work path for high school students, drawn from throughout a major industrial city with its many attendant problems. Through a non-coercive, cooperative learning environment, students acquire competencies in design, construction, and maintenance of automated manufacturing machine systems. Supported by over 80 companies, the two-year, half-day program will form the model for a proposed full four-year, all-day high school program encompassing two of the five Tech Prep manufacturing engineering technology competency profiles. The proposed three-year project will address a key industrial need to replace today's aging employees with tomorrow's skilled technical workforce. An integrated curriculum, adapted from many existing proven models, will emphasize cooperative learning strategies, the Quality School techniques of Glasser and others, a full spectrum of real-world work experience for students, laboratory expansion, and marketing to solve low student enrollment. Evening adult education components, will allow special laboratories provided by industry to be used by a larger community population. The UT Community and Technical College will offer full articulated associate degree programs for graduates. The new technology based high school program is being developed by a strong community team consisting of: Edison Industrial Systems Center, Toledo Public Schools, The University of Toledo, Toledo area industrial companies, and the Toledo Chapters of the Societies of Manufacturing Engineers and Plastics Engineers. Industry support and leadership are vital to the success of this initiative providing input into curriculum, providing student and instructor mentoring, technical assistance, product and monetary assistance.
