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"Industry 4.0-based systems and subsystems are replacing current process and process control equipment in Florida’s manufacturing environment. The Florida State College System Engineering Technology (ET) degree pathway for developing engineering technology professionals is responding to this reality at the ET two-year associate degree, the 4-year ET B.S. degree, and post-graduate degrees as well as a statewide recognized path to the Professional Engineers license in Engineering Technology. The National Science Foundation Advanced Technological Education program (NSF-ATE) supports this effort. NSF-ATE assets provided to FLATE and five partner colleges are directed to the formation of a statewide advisory board for the 20 colleges that offer ET degrees as well as supporting six overarching Florida ET education system target goals: (1) Adjust Florida Department of Education Standards and Benchmarks to include criteria that address Florida manufacturer-identified Industry 4.0 skills gap in its technical workforce. (2) Create a statewide streamlined seamless articulation environment from the Engineering Technology A.S. to B.S. degree programs. (3) Provide Professional Development that up-skills Engineering Technology Degree faculty as related to identified Industry 4.0 technician skill needs. (4) Create a short-term ET College Credit Certificate to prepare current and future technicians to apply these new skills in the manufacturing workspace. (5) Amplify the manufacturer's involvement with college engineering technology certificates and A.S.ET degree programs. (6) Create Post-A.S. Curriculum Advanced Technology Certificate (ATC) to facilitate skilled technician professional advancement. Statewide implementation of the curriculum changes is key to more robust programs and more work-ready technician graduates. This paper and presentation poster will share the strategies the project team is using to achieve its goals and objectives. It will also share the feedback received from the industry relative to industry 4.0 skills needed in their facilities." 

Different perspectives on the “Future of Work” can cause disconnections between the technician skills needed by industry and those taught by the educational programs preparing technicians to participate in Industry 4.0 (I4.0) manufacturing environments. Variations in the methodology of identifying, grouping, and describing technical skills and skill areas are driven by variations in sources of information and the industries and locales they represent. This paper summarizes for the ATE audience a FLATE (Florida Advanced Technological Education Center of Excellence) project [1]—Technician Future of Work Issues Caucus for Florida Community Colleges and Manufacturers (DUE 1939173)—that compared the skills needed by Florida manufacturers to the skills taught at two-year Florida colleges, and then mapped those skills to the I4.0 skills identified by a national sampling of technology-focused industries carried out by the CORD project Preparing Technicians for the Future of Work (DUE 1839567) [2]. Specifically, the paper (i) reviews the I4.0 technology skills identified by the Boston Consulting Group; (ii) presents I4.0 skill interactions with the results from the CORD and FLATE projects; and (iii) maps Florida-identified technician skill needs to the Cross-Disciplinary STEM Core skills identified at the national level by the CORD project. The paper also summarizes the process for integration of the I4.0 technology-related skills into the AS engineering technology program offered by twenty-two colleges in the Florida State College System [3,4,5]. 

The two-year (60 semester credit hour) Engineering Technology (ET) Associate of Science (AS) degree program is available to students in 23 of the 25 Florida State Colleges that offer technician preparation degrees. As of 2020 there were over 2,000 students enrolled in this course of study. The degree has a Core set of courses completed in the first year followed by a set of specialized courses in year 2. The program has a high percentage of students working in industry during their course of study and enjoys an over 90% industry employment placement of its graduates. Graduates can also seamlessly articulate into an B.S. program offered in the Florida State College System as well as pursue a B.S. Engineering Technology degree that also leads to a Professional Engineers License. To maintain this rewarding ET career path, the Florida Advanced Technological Education Center (FLATE) with support from the Florida Department of Education, the National Science Foundation, and the National Institute of Standards and Technology, NIST, supported Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP) interacts directly with manufacturers, college technical faculty, and college upper administration to assure the ET degree program focus is manufacturing industry impact within each college service region. 

There have been many questions and concerns raised by educators about how advanced technology students will adapt to remote learning during the COVID era. What will technician students’ academic engagement and persistence be like, and how will online learning affect their educational outcomes? What do technician students like about remote learning and what do they find challenging? What does online learning mean for hands-on applied and experiential learning, which are hallmarks of technical education programs? This paper explores pilot survey data collected in Florida from advanced technology students at two-year colleges. Five primary areas covered in the survey include enrollment status, access to technology, experience using a Learning Management System and learning online, impact on applied and experiential learning, and students’ background information. Key findings include decreased interaction between peers, increased reliance on instructors, and a significant decline in experiential learning such as labs, group projects, demonstrations, problem-based learning, and service-learning. The majority of students report feeling worried about making progress toward their degree, and about half worried about completing the semester. Two benefits students identified as having access to course materials all the time through the LMS and the flexibility of remote learning. Findings also show that technician students are quite diverse by way of age, partner status, having a family, race-ethnicity, employment status, and educational background. About one-third of students who responded are women. This paper concludes with several recommendations about the application of these research findings to address challenges technician students face learning online, including specific actions that instructors and programs can pursue to help retain students and provide support through the completion of degree programs. 

The manufacturing workspace and the technician workforce that supports that space tomorrow is an important issue to deal with today. As Industry 4.0 is absorbed into manufacturing facilities around the country, engineering technicians working in these facilities adjust to make tomorrow today. The National Science Foundation has supported the Florida Advanced Technological Education Center (FLATE) contiguously since 2004. FLATE's intent is to craft a manufacturing workforce that makes Florida manufacturers globally competitive. FLATE crafted and the Florida Department of Education now supported two-year Engineering Technology degree (A.S. ET) is the vehicle for manufacturing education in Florida. The degree is offered in over 85% of the colleges in the Florida College System (FCS) and has over 2,000 students enrolled statewide. The current NSF-supported project is to conduct an I4.0-focused Caucus of manufacturers and ET degree college faculty to collectively identify skill issues that will affect manufacturing production efficiency and product reliability. The project team initially used the nine Industry 4.0 (I4.0) technology areas identified by the Boston Consulting Group and selected four that will directly impact starting technicians working in companies that are already implementing Industry 4.0 technologies: (1) Autonomous Robots, (2) Simulation, (3) Industrial Internet of Things and (4) Additive/Subtractive Manufacturing and Advanced Materials. Technician skills are defined as those needed to set up, operate, troubleshoot, and maintain production and process equipment. Specific skills that fall in the I4.0 technologies identified as relevant for starting technicians were defined to be those that will be needed in the next 3-5 years. Initial questionnaire responses and subsequent data analysis detail are provided. Identified skills gaps as recognized by the manufacturers and faculty are provided and discussed.