This award provides renewed funding for an internship program at Monterey Peninsula College's Marine Advanced Technology Education (MATE) Center. The MATE Center is a national network of community colleges, high schools, universities, research institutions, marine industries, professional societies and individuals working together to improve marine technical education and better prepare America's future workforce for marine science and technology occupations. The at-sea marine technical internship program, which represents a 12-year partnership with University National Oceanographic Laboratory System (UNOLS) and the United States Coast Guard (USCG), coordinates internships for student marine technicians aboard research vessels. The program will provide 14-17 undergraduate students with two to eight-week internships and one student with a six-month internship each year for the next three years (2011-2013).
The MATE Center's marine technical internship program began in 1999. Since its inception, the program has placed 236 students in at-sea and shore-based internship positions. MATE interns work with marine technicians and scientists onboard research vessels, and these experiences provide them with the opportunity to develop their technical, scientific, seamanship, and interpersonal skills. Although the need for qualified marine technicians is at an all time high, especially in the wake of the Deep Horizon Oil Spill, training programs that prepare students for marine technical careers are few, mainly because it is prohibitively expensive for most programs to offer substantial time at sea and time working with state-of-the-art equipment. Students who choose to pursue marine technical careers are often caught in the paradox of not being able to acquire a job without work experience, and not being able to get work experience without a job. MATE's marine technical internship program is an essential solution to this problem; at-sea technical internships help undergraduate students gain the experience they need and ocean related employers to gain access to qualified technical professionals who can fill their workforce needs.
The MATE Center has 56 formal community college and university partnerships from which the interns are actively recruited. The program targets community college students enrolled in marine science and technology programs and university students interested in marine technical careers and continually reaches out to colleges and universities located in geographic regions rich in marine technology industries to invite them to participate in MATE activities. Further, MATE makes a substantial effort to recruit students who are traditionally underrepresented in STEM disciplines. The program's primary target audience is students enrolled in community colleges as these students tend to be more diverse (age, socioeconomic and ethnic) than four-year university students and are not typically provided with research opportunities.
This program supports workforce development efforts related to at-sea technology both for the ocean science community and ocean industry.
