Keeping Up with the Demand for a Technically - Skilled Workforce: The Role of ATE Networks and Community Colleges
A Forum — September 19, 2008
Overview
In partnership with the American Association of Community Colleges, AYPF is hosting a series of forums to showcase effective and innovative Advanced Technological Education Centers and programs. Funded by the National Science Foundation, the Advanced Technological Education (ATE) program utilizes educators from two-year colleges in leadership roles to develop and implement ideas for improving the skills of technicians and the educators who teach them.
ATE Centers are successful tools for delivering high quality, industry-relevant trainings to community colleges across the country through innovative uses of technology and delivery mechanisms. Training programs are linked with industry partners needs and constantly refined and improved. This forum will focus on two high-growth industries, telecommunications and process technology, showcasing the work of the ATE Centers and the benefits to their industry partners.
The National Center for Telecommunications Technologies (NCTT) located at Springfield Technical Community College is an Advanced Technological Education (ATE) Center for focused on the instruction of telecommunications engineering technologies. NCTT's mission is to contribute to scientific and technological innovation in telecommunications education with a primary thrust in two areas: Curriculum Development and Program Improvement. Curriculum Development encompasses the design and implementation of new curricula, courses, laboratories and instructional materials. Program Improvement encompasses faculty and teacher development, student academic support and formal partnerships with business/industry, government, educational institutions and other stakeholders. The targeted audiences include high school and college faculty, secondary and postsecondary students, and employers and employees in the ICT sector.
Housed at the College of the Mainland in Texas City, TX, the Center for the Advancement of Process Technology (CAPT) is a national collaboration between education and industry in six process technology alliances. These alliances include industry partners such as BASF, BP, BP Exploration and Production, Celanese, ChevronTexaco, Coastal Refining, Colonial Pipeline, ConocoPhillips, Dow Chemical, DuPont, Eastman Chemical, ExxonMobil, Formosa Plastics, Lyondell-Citgo Refining, Oklahoma Gas and Electric, Roche Pharmaceuticals and Shell Chemical. The mission of CAPT is to lead education, industry, and government agencies in developing the skilled process technician workforce necessary for the U.S. process industries to remain globally competitive. To accomplish this, the Center fosters the development and enhancement of quality two-year degree programs based on industry-established standards. The four primary goals being addressed by CAPT are:
1. Develop curricula and instructional materials that support process technology education.
2. Provide professional development opportunities for community college and high school faculty who prepare students for careers in the process industries.
3. Design and promote career pathways and products that aim to increase student enrollment and diversity in process technology programs.
4. Establish and foster partnerships linking industry, education, and government to advance process technology education.
Presenters will describe the work at each of these ATE Centers with emphasis on the role of the industry partners.
Biographies:
Ellen Bemben is President of the Regional Technology Corporation (RTC), is a 501(c) (3), non-profit organization, based in Springfield, MA. The RTC is one of several Affiliates of the far reaching Western Massachusetts Economic Development Council (EDC). The RTC coordinates and manages the region’s technology-driven economic development strategies for business attraction, creation and retention. It is closely aligned with academia and its founder, the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.
The RTC was formed with the successful awarding of a $600,000 NSF grant to UMass in 2000. Ellen joined the RTC as a volunteer at its inception in 2001. In 2002 she Chaired the newly formed Materials & Manufacturing Technology Network (MMTN) and went on to become a member of the RTC Board of Directors in 2003. She was elected RTC President in May, 2006.
Today, the RTC manages 4 technology-based business clusters – Clean Tech, Life Sciences, IT & Telecommunications and Advanced Materials & Manufacturing with its over 130 member companies such as MassMutual, Baystate Medical, Microsoft and EMC2. The RTC actively promotes business in the “Knowledge Corridor” in Western New England and its over 30 colleges and universities and their 200,000+ annual graduates from UMass, UConn, Smith, Mount Holyoke, Trinity, Amherst, and other outstanding educating institutions.
Ellen is well - known in the polymer industries – plastics, adhesives and coatings. She has over 25 years of experience in plastics half of it with General Polymers (now Ashland Distribution), a $2 Billion division of Ashland Oil which also owns Valvoline.
Ellen previously worked under contract for the Government of Israel in successfully promoting its plastics and packaging industries at the C-level of such companies as Gillette, GE Plastics, Smith & Wesson, Johnson & Johnson, and Elizabeth Arden. She worked directly with the Economic Minister to North America – a direct report to the Prime Minister and traveled extensively in the Middle East. Appreciation for her efforts was shown by way of a private dinner with then, Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, during a global business conference in Haifa, Israel.
She comes to the RTC from heading up New Business Development for Specialized Technology Resources (STR) of Enfield, CT, a global consumer product testing and materials development firm, founded in 1944, employing over 2,000 worldwide.
Ellen sits on the Board of Trustees for MA State Treasurer, Timothy Cahill and the new $4 million Commonwealth Covenant Fund providing tuition relief to 4-year MA STEM college and university students. Ellen also serves on the Industry Advisory Council (IAC) of Western New England College, School of Engineering. She is an advisor to the Society of Manufacturing Engineers’ (SME) big EASTEC trade show and medical device leader, BEACON’s MEDi 2008. She served 3 terms as President of the Society of Plastics Engineers (SPE), Western New England Section.
Ellen has won national achievement awards from such companies as Nypro, Eveready Battery and CIGNA. She attended Lake Erie College, L'Université de Nancy, in France, and the University of Pittsburgh, Graduate School of Public & International Affairs, Dept. of International Affairs.
Dennis Link is the Manager of Unit-Specific Operations Training for BP Texas City Refinery and accountable for designing, developing and implementing quality, consistent operations training programs that contribute to safe, compliant and reliable operations. Dennis is also a long-term adjunct faculty member, plus a Process Technology Advisory Committee member at College of the Mainland.
Dennis has 30 years experience in the Petrochemical and Refining Industry across five BP plant sites, including an assignment in Belgium. He was the initial chair of the College of the Mainland Advisory Committee that developed the original A.A.S. degree program in Progress Technology that became the model industry-driven program across the United States.
Dennis holds a B.S. degree in Mathematics with 20 years of practical experience in public and industrial education. He has a true passion for education, leadership and the continued advancement of Process Technology. Dennis is married with three grown children and 4 grandchildren.
Bill Raley is College of the Mainland’s Dean of Technical and Workforce Education. He has over 25 years administrative experience in post secondary education preceded by 10 years industry experience. Bill has also spent 10 years in the Middle East where he was involved in managing training efforts for Shell Oil and the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company. It was this experience that fomented his desire and commitment to focus on technical and workforce program improvements in the US.
Bill brought the initial team together that led to the development of the AAS in Process Technology at College of the Mainland. He was instrumental in bringing industry and education together that led to the formation of the Gulf Coast Process Technology Alliance that has been replicated in the formation of other regional alliances. Bill holds a BS and MS in Technology. He is the current Principle Investigator for the NSF ATE Center Grant at COM titled The Center For The Advancement Of Process Technology
Lee Rector is the Deputy Director of the Texas Workforce Investment Council, and is responsible for the conceptual design of Council’s products, and for ensuring that the Council’s statutory responsibilities of strategic planning for and evaluation of the Texas workforce system are accomplished. In accordance with both state and federal mandates, the Council advises the Texas Governor and the Legislature on the development of a highly-skilled workforce, as well as strategic opportunities for technical education and economic competitiveness.
With 20 years experience in workforce, post-secondary technical education, and policy, Ms. Rector has developed and implemented initiatives in higher education and workforce development in both the United States and Australia. She holds graduate degrees in both business administration, and in human resource management and industrial relations, and a Bachelor’s of Education. She serves as co-chair for the National Science Foundation’s ATE Center for the Advancement of Process Technology.
Gordon F. Snyder, Jr. is Executive Director and Principal Investigator for the National Center for Information and Communications Technologies at Springfield Technical Community College in Springfield, MA, where he also manages curriculum development for networking. At STCC he helped develop the Verizon Next Step program and now serves as the New England telecommunications curriculum coordinator for the program. He is the author of four engineering and engineering technology textbooks and has over 14 years of consulting experience in the field of communications and LAN/WAN design. He has served on several local and national boards including the Microsoft Community & Technical College Advisory Council, the Massachusetts Networking and Communications Council and the National Skill Standards Board (NSSB) Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Voluntary Partnership representing the telecommunications, computer, and information industry sector. He currently chairs the Institute for Telecommunications Technologies Board at Cuyamaca College, El Cajon, California, the NSF National Center for Optics and Photonics Education Board in Waco, TX, the Convergence Technology Center Board in the Dallas Fort Worth. TX metroplex and co-chairs the Maricopa Advanced Technology Education Center board in Phoenix. Closer to home he chairs the Technology Enterprise Council (TEC), a regional, industry-led organization working hand-in-hand with academic institutions and other non-profit organizations to advance the growth and success of companies driven by information and communications technologies in Southern Vermont, Western Massachusetts and Connecticut. In this region he also sits on the Regional Technology Coucil (RTC) Board of Directors and the RTC Executive Committee. In 2001 he was selected as one of the top fifteen technology faculty in the United States by Microsoft Corporation and the American Association of Community Colleges and in 2004 was selected as the Massachusetts Telecommunications Council Workforce Development Leader of the year. His popular blogs and podcasts are read and listened to by thousands.
Read his blog at: http://ictcenter.blogspot.com/ Read Show Notes and Listen to Mike Q and Gordon's Podcasts at: http://gsnyder.libsyn.com/
Resources
Logistics
Maps & Metro Rail
Date: Friday, September 19, 2008
Time: 11:45am – 1:30pm
Location: Rayburn House Office Building Room 2168
RSVP: To RSVP, please send an email to aypf@aypf.org by 12:00pm on Wednesday, September 17, 2008.
The American Youth Policy Forum (AYPF), a nonprofit, nonpartisan professional development organization based in Washington, DC, provides learning opportunities for policy leaders, practitioners, and researchers working on youth and education issues at the national, state, and local levels.
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