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Title: Partners in Professional Development: Initial Results from a Collaboration Between Universities, Training Programs, and Professional Societies
This paper describes initial results from a collaborative effort to develop a flexible, open-source professional skills training program for engineers and scientists. The collaboration was initiated by Michigan State University (MSU) as part of a (successful) training grant proposal to the National Science Foundation. MSU proposed to lead efforts to develop new professional development training materials focused on communication, teamwork and leadership skills. Tau Beta Pi, the Engineering Honor Society, joined the collaboration and provided access to a national network of well-trained, volunteer facilitators who were eager for new curriculum materials. Several national organizations that offer technical training in various areas of expertise also joined the collaboration, including the National Research Mentor Network (NRMN), the Center for the Improvement of Mentored Experiences in Research (CIMER), and the Carpentries. Their contributions included experience managing large repositories of curricula and ensuring quality control while allowing materials to be updated regularly. During the first year of this collaboration, new curriculum was developed at MSU and pilot tested by facilitators from Tau Beta Pi (TBP). Several of the collaborating training programs helped to advertise or host these pilot tests. While the project is funded for another two years, the benefits of this unique collaboration are already apparent and new partners are expressing interest in expanding this project to develop a national framework for sharing resources, facilitators and curriculum between programs.  more » « less
Award ID(s):
1730137
NSF-PAR ID:
10122736
Author(s) / Creator(s):
; ; ;
Date Published:
Journal Name:
Proceedings of the 2019 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition
Format(s):
Medium: X
Sponsoring Org:
National Science Foundation
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