The Elizabethtown-Fort Knox, Kentucky region has a robust advanced manufacturing industry that is increasingly using automation and robotics. This industry now has more than 400 annual openings for Manufacturing Engineers, and it takes an average of 40 days to fill these positions with a qualified candidate. This project intends to increase the pool of qualified candidates for these and related positions. To do so, Elizabethtown Community and Technical College will partner with the U.S. Army Garrison - Fort Knox to provide educational opportunities in Advanced Manufacturing to soldiers transitioning to civilian life. These opportunities will include the high-demand areas of Automation, Robotics, Industrial Maintenance, and Electrical Technology. The college will use flexible course options to meet the needs of transitioning soldiers so that they can use their post-service time to obtain industry-recognized, stackable credentials, including academic certificates and associate degrees. The result is expected to be a new career pathway that will expand advanced manufacturing education to more students. In addition, by redesigning their Advanced Manufacturing courses to closely align with the skills needed in high-demand industries in the region, the project can benefit soldiers reentering civilian life.
This project at Elizabethtown Community and Technical College will focus on serving transitioning military personnel and will gain a better understanding of veteran culture and the necessary services needed to promote student success. Student services will be combined with portable, relevant, affordable education in high-demand areas in Advanced Manufacturing. The college intends to shorten the time to a credential through flexible course options that include online, hybrid, and face to face instruction, combined with increased acceptance of experiential credit from military transcripts. The goal of the project is that at least 90% of the students in each cohort will be placed in industry or retained for graduation with an Associate degree. The academic and service model developed by the project will be shared among the 16 colleges in the Kentucky Community and Technical College System. The program will also disseminate their model and findings nationally, to assist other colleges that want to serve growing veteran populations that would benefit from similar academic and career support. This project is funded by the Advanced Technological Education program that focuses on the education of technicians for the advanced-technology fields that drive the nation's economy.
This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.
