In order to meet the demand for workers in the nuclear technology field, Wallace Community College (WCC) in partnership with local secondary schools, vocational centers, universities, and Southern Nuclear Power Company offers a high quality nuclear technology program that incorporates education and training at the secondary school, vocational, and community college levels. This partnership generates new talent in the instrumentation and control subsections of nuclear technology. Southern Nuclear Company has pointed to this skill as a key labor shortfall area. Project participants are undergoing professional development that results in an improved quality of education and training received by students. The new and existing courses at WCC are taught primarily by existing faculty with additional instruction from subject area experts from Plant Farley. WCC and partners are educating faculty in order to maintain a nationwide supply of highly qualified nuclear technicians. The project enhances the skill sets of instructors in disciplines related to nuclear technology. Existing courses and new courses are presently taught by faculty members who have a limited knowledge of the nuclear power industry. These instructors are being provided with industry related training so that they understand how the skills they are teaching are applied to the nuclear technology field.
grant was to prepare faculty to offer high quality nuclear technology programs that incorporate education and training at the secondary school and community college levels. Wallace Community College sought assistance from the National Science Foundation's Advance Technology Education program to provide instructor training for its STEM faculty in nuclear technology and related fields. Over the course of the grant, Wallace Community College, in partnership with Southern Company's Plant Farley, provided faculty development in three parts. Part one was comprised of workshops for community college and secondary school faculty on the workplace skills needed in the nuclear energy sector. Part two was a faculty development internship program that gave participating faculty opportunities to shadow Plant Farley technical professions. Part two also included a series of didactic lectures on various aspects of nuclear technology. The third part of the project involved WCC faculty integrating the information learned into activities within existing STEM courses and in the courses developed for the Nuclear Engineering Technology program. In total, thirty Wallace Community College faculty members participated in all three portions of the grant project. The thirty faculty members were from various departments to include math, biology, chemistry, physics, computer and information science, electrical technology, industrial electrical technology, nuclear technology as well as transitional studies. In addition to the WCC faculty, nineteen teachers from secondary schools within the Dothan City School system participated in workshops at Southern Company's Plant Farley. Each participant in the grant noted that their participation in the project helped deepen the instructor's knowledge of the field of nuclear technology. Using the newfound knowledge, instructors are now better prepared to advise students entering the nuclear technology field. Well informed instructors are also able to incorporate pedagogy that will increase productivity and success of WCC students in the nuclear technology program. The project also provided positive public relations and marketing efforts aimed at elevating the image of skilled craft careers in the nuclear energy sector.
