Four community colleges serving constituencies throughout the state of Maryland are collaborating to create the Maryland Center for Manufacturing Education Excellence (MCMEE). With the participation of private industry, trade associations, higher education, secondary education, government agencies, and assessment experts, the Center aims to inform and improve manufacturing education through discovery, utilization, and dissemination of intellectual resources such as the National Skill Standards Board, the Manufacturing Skill Standards Council, and the ATE centers. The Community College of Baltimore County (CCBC) will lead the effort, with assistance from College of Southern Maryland, Harford Community College, and Wor-Wic Community College.
The project objectives, activities and deliverables represent a comprehensive strategy to increase the number of manufacturing technicians to meet local workforce demands, and to improve the technical skills of those workers. The center will focus its energies in four program areas:
(1) Curriculum development and adaptation: To address Maryland's diverse manufacturing base, the partners are designing a modular, flexible program that can be reconfigured and adapted to address varied workforce education needs at the high school or college level. The model arranges thirteen industries into three primary segments: processing, fabrication, and electronics/instrumentation. The curriculum is structured around a cluster of core workplace skills as defined by the WorkKeys system (e.g., applied technology, teamwork, observation) and core technical skills (e.g., instrument calibration, industrial measurements, process control) identified by the project team as common to a majority of the industries.
(2) Skill assessment and workforce/program improvement: Employers are demanding reliable methods to assess critical technical and workplace skills of job applicants; educators seek similar skill measurements to ensure that their students are work-ready upon graduation. To that end, MCMEE is constructing an assessment methodology grounded in the strong positive correlation between the newly-created curricula and on-the-job performance expectations of local employers. With those new instruments, the Center can assess the skills of current and future manufacturing workers. Assessment data is being compiled, aggregated, analyzed, and reported to educators and employers for use in quality improvement efforts.
(3) Enhanced recruitment to manufacturing careers: A two-pronged approach to change the negative image of manufacturing jobs targets both educators and students. Faculty and career counselors from both high schools and colleges are participating in on-line technical courses, tours and presentations at manufacturing facilities, attending workshops and national conference, and participating in internships at local companies. Innovative efforts to attract students to manufacturing include new experiences at the Baltimore Museum of Industry and intensive summer workshops for high school students.
(4) Electronic communication and integration of services: A web-based portal is a central resource for accessing services and information related to manufacturing, including skills-based career exploration and job matching; a job exchange for on-line job postings and applications; promotion of education and training opportunities; linkages among faculty, employers, service providers, and other audiences; and on-line dissemination of project and assessment information.
