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STEM technician education programs face a world in which cutting-edge technologies are transforming existing industries and creating new ones at an unprecedented pace. In light of this, the NSF ATE project Preparing Technicians for the Future of Work conducted industry site interviews and regional convenings of academic partners and industry leaders representing a wide range of technical fields to learn how technology impacts technician job tasks and roles. Through these activities, the project identified three skill areas common across multiple technologies and deemed essential for future STEM technicians: data knowledge/analysis, advanced digital literacy, and business knowledge/processes. These “cross-disciplinary STEM core” skill sets and recommendations for integrating them into technical programs are described in A Framework for a Cross-Disciplinary STEM Core. To facilitate adoption of the Framework at a systemic level, the project is sharing an adoption toolkit with concrete steps a college can take, tools it can use with employers to prioritize STEM Core skill sets and faculty activities for identifying where prioritized skills are taught within existing program curriculum and instructional gaps where new cross-disciplinary skill sets could be easily integrated. 

Siemens DI believes the future of manufacturing must be taught in our schools today. To facilitate this, we provide several educational programs that partner with technical colleges to provide hands-on learning and experience on our automation software and hardware. These programs include Siemens Cooperates with Education (SCE), Siemens Mechatronics Systems Certification Program (SMSCP), Lifelong Educational Advantage Program (LEAP), and Siemens Go-PLM. Participating as an industrial employer with the Preparing Technicians for the Future of Work ATE project team has provided Siemens with the ability to contribute to the tactile execution of educational priorities and influence the strategic direction of industry’s collaboration with educational institutions in a positive fashion. The ability to share concepts and practices with others in industry has contributed to changes in our approaches to educational partners and customer conversations. 

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]. 

Podcasts are a cohesive instructional tool for professional development. When podcasts include enhancements such as resource links, transcripts, and learning resources, they can be described as content acquisition podcasts (CAP) grounded in the Cognitive Theory of Multimedia Learning. The author presents a logic model for podcast design that identifies the outcomes and impact of CAPs. As a method for professional development, podcasts are shown to be further enhanced by guidance documents that help learners identify and align content to their needs. A complete profile of a podcast is presented as a scenario to illustrate the design and methodology of the approach. As an extension, learner-created podcasts are highlighted as a method of promoting active engagement and collaborative learning.