The Construction Technology Center of Red Rocks Community College has joined with secondary education representatives and industry leaders throughout Colorado to develop a model in the recruitment and preparation of prospective technicians. The Technical Education Pathways (TEP) produces skilled technicians with improved skill adaptability as a result of integrated classroom and internship experiences reinforcing real world application of science, and mathematics.
Through adaptation of promising approaches in the marketing of technical career education developed by other National Science Foundation grantees, career awareness activities with high school students includes job shadowing and real opportunities to interact in the technical workplace. A college level course offered for high school students introduces the application of science and mathematics and effective communication in the workplace as students are prepared for matriculation as college freshmen with improved academic competencies.
Faculty development joins secondary faculty of mathematics and the sciences with the postsecondary technical faculty in collegial exchanges improves the integration of the core academic subjects with the application that occurs in the technical work place. Faculty are engaged in developing an instructional approach that facilitates learning by encouraging active inquiry-based exploration that coaches learners in the multiple applications of the theoretical knowledge in the sciences and mathematics. The postsecondary classrooms and laboratories replicate the technology in the manipulation of the tools and the equipment found in the actual technical workplace as college freshmen are prepared in a series of paid internships and apprenticeships. Professional practicing technicians are prepared through training provided by the TEP as workplace mentors in the guidance of the prospective technician student in the integration of the new knowledge gained in the classroom with real work using the principles of contextual learning. Students are engaged in project-based learning in the workplace, using mathematic and scientific concepts to solve problems and honing reasoning skills useful in diagnosing and resolving problems yet to be encountered. At the completion of the applied associate of science program, the new technician has multiple career options as well as opportunities to continue his or her undergraduate studies with universities offering articulation for the graduating technician.
