Today, most community colleges are not offering a broadly accepted portable associate degree in manufacturing. This project will develop instructional modules that can be infused into existing curricula and, thereby, create the foundation for such a degree. Students will be brought to 22 generic standards developed by a national panel of educators and employers in 1994. The standards are based primarily on the competencies defined by the Secretary's Commission on Achieving Necessary Skills (SCANS). Multidisciplinary teams of mathematics, science, and technology faculty will design a series of CD-ROMs and print materials for 16 instructional modules and design a 17th work-based module. The materials will be produced by the Educational Film Center The design teams will come from five Lead Colleges representing five consortia of community colleges, which include over 130 colleges. The Lead Colleges will implement the revised curriculum and disseminate the results to consortia members. Two consortia are state systems -- California and New Hampshire, two are industry-based -- Boeing and the Alliance (of AT&T and its unions), and the last is the Consortium for Manufacturing Competitiveness. Affiliate Colleges will also implement the instructional modules and, already, 25 colleges have been nominated or have indicated that they want to participate. National boards, which include representatives of the American Association of Community Colleges, the National Association of Manufacturers, the five consortia, IBM, Ford, the Public Broadcasting System, and institutions at the forefront of related efforts such as Sinclair Community College, will guide the design and implementation activities and help disseminate the results to community colleges and employers across the nation. A formative and summative evaluation will be undertaken by the American Institutes for Research. A successful project will have a significant impact on technical education and on the comp etitiveness of American manufacturing.
