The Automotive Manufacturing Technical Education Collaborative (AMTEC) is a consortium of 25 community colleges and 21 corporate automotive companies working to strengthen the competency and global competitiveness of the automotive manufacturing workforce. The consortium creates and sustains an innovative, responsive and standards-based workforce development system that meets the skill requirements of the auto industry. Business/industry partnerships are created to validate the skills and knowledge required by multi-skilled manufacturing and transportation technicians and to deliver the technical education that meets the high-priority needs of the automotive manufacturers, suppliers and dealers. The impact of the Center is increased through mentoring of other colleges that are establishing automotive manufacturing and transportation technician programs. The Center and its partners create a transportable and updateable model for automotive manufacturing and transportation technician education through the use of a DACUM/Delphi process and the use of electronic technologies. A pipeline of educated workers is built on models that successfully recruit high school students into two-year college programs and also articulate with programs in four-year colleges. Research on technology is transferred to the applied stage through workshops for two-year college faculty provided by four-year college partners. The evaluation of the Center includes assessing its impact on the automotive industry, on community college practice and on student recruitment, retention and placement.
. AMTEC is a national collaboration of community and technical colleges and automotive industry partners working to better prepare highly skilled technicians for work in automobile manufacturing across the United States. The project outcomes includes (1) the creation of national college/industry partnerships in delivering nationally standardized technical education that meets the needs of the automotive industry; (2) increasing career pathway transitions from secondary to postsecondary to employment; (3) maintaining a collaborative support system for sustainability and replication; (4) developing and sustaining the AMTEC model of assessment and continuous improvement; (5) and developing automotive service hybrid modules that support competency-based instruction and continuous improvement for the Commonwealth of Kentucky. The AMTEC Center has collaborated across the industry sector to create partnerships between local manufactuers and colleges to support highly skilled technician education. The college and automotive industry partners worked with AMTEC to develop industry validated skills standards through the use of the DACUM/Delphi procedure. AMTEC then developed hybrid modularized competency-based curriculum aligned to these standards, a full complement of assessments have been developed that are aligned to DACUM/Delphi standards. The AMTEC General Mechatronics Exam serves as an end of program assessment tool which can also be used as a rigorous certification tool. The AMTEC Diagnostic assessments were developed as a tool for which students/candidates could be assessed in specific subject areas and directed to module for skills improvement.The AMTEC modules also contain pre and post exams within each module. The ongoing analysis of the data has opened a unique window to drive continuous improvement in: module content, technical professional development, college specific assistance. A literature review of career pathway best practices was researched and case studies were done on exemplary career pathway models. This research has been published into an executive summary to guide the local AMTEC partners in the development of their local promising practices. Colleges have begun the development of their manufacturing pathway models from the K-12 system, into the community colleges, and onto advanced degrees.. Mutlitple colleges have begun their work on building stackable manufacturing credentials to include AMTEC in their advanced career pathway. AMTEC has provided professional development of faculty and staff in the development of strong partnerships with industry and in the delivery of competency based hybrid curriculum. AMTEC hosts academies and technical workshops at partner college or industry sites that are developed for the purpose of aligning colleges and industry in achieving the goals of the center in ensuring that we are preparing technicians for the current and future workforce. The AMTEC academies focus on issues that are critical to the success of the center and technician education for the manufacturing industry. The impact of this work addresses issues that have been the focus of higher education leaders and the Obama administration. Competency-based hybrid curriculum and assessments that allow students to learn at their own pace and also measure competency allows for accelaration and credit for prior knowledge. Also, by working with industry to ensure program standards and alignment, is critical to the success of the automotive industry and provides a model for other sectors to follow. The AMTEC academies have convened automotive companies that generally compete with one another to identfy and implement strategies that supports their abilities to prepare technicians for their future workforce. Relationships have been built through these academies that have impacted the companies beyond the initial goals of the center through sharing of data and strategies amongst the colleges, and amongst the companies. The impact of the AMTEC national consortium can also be seen in the final year by the additional partnerships and funding that partner colleges have secured. One community college moved forward to submit and was awarded 15 million dollars in TAACCCT funding for 13 AMTEC college partners. AMTEC also supported the University of Kentucky PRISM NIST Project, known as AMTech, for which UK received an award for their consortium research in sustainable manufacturing for Kentucky, Ohio, and Michigan university partners over 2 years. Finally, AMTEC's work, model, and methodology has also gained international attention among Saudi Arabia, Mexico, Brazil, and India.
