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Excelsior College and Polk State College:

Ensuring Workforce Readiness

Creating Courses and Simulations to Prepare Energy & Manufacturing Workforce

 

Backed by a three-year grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF), Excelsior College has worked with Polk State College to develop simulations to teach and then assess key skills in power generation and advanced manufacturing to prepare technicians for the workplace. Excelsior College was the first online college to receive this NSF grant, which helps technicians with occupation-specific training and certification in the energy and manufacturing industries.

Under the grant, Excelsior College created four courses: three courses embedded with simulation and one course aligned with CEWD EIF credential. A simulation Dashboard was integrated with the simulations and has data partitioned for the student, the instructor, and the program. All simulations are open education resources that can be used by colleges and industries throughout the world. To access these simulations, simply go to Wisc-Online and use the keyword "Excelsior" to search.

Bei Liu, one of the grant’s principal investigators and a faculty program director at Excelsior College, has been invited to join industry experts at the 26th National ATE Principal Investigators’ Conference in Washington, DC. Liu is one of approximately 850 NSF ATE (Advanced Technology Education) grantees and their project partners who will attend and focus on critical issues related to advanced technological education.

To read the full news release, visit https://www.excelsior.edu/article/excelsior-college-creates-course-simulations-to-prepare-energy-manufacturing-workforce/.

This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 1700513. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.
 

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Workforce Readiness by Earning a Credential and/or Becoming Employed

 

Through alignment with CEWD competency models, Excelsior students will earn industry-recognized credentials linked with employment opportunities and career advancement while completing their degrees.

The Energy Industry Fundamentals Credential ensures potential workers gain an understanding of the energy industry as a prerequisite to occupation-specific training. Workers should also be aware of the careers available in the energy industry, and the education and training required to enter and advance in those careers. The Energy Industry Fundamentals (EIF) Credential aligns with tiers 4 and 5 of the Energy Competency Model developed by CEWD and the U.S. Department of Labor. It covers emerging principles and concepts that impact the energy industry; compliance with safety and health procedures; how electric power and natural gas generation, transmission, and distribution work; a range of entry-level energy careers; and “hot topics” in energy.

AAS in Technical Studies

 

 

 

 

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Job Task Demo

Simulation Scenarios

 

Safety & PPE Blueprint Reading Job Tasks

  • Intake Slurry Valve

  • Pump Motor

  • Pump

  • Motor Controller Circuit

  • AC Motor

  • Compressor motor

  • Water Pump

  • 3-Phase Press Motor

  • Liquid Process Control System

  • The Press Motor Unstable

  • Three Phase Motor Overheating

  • Liquid Heating Unit Underheat

  • Motor and Pump Alignment

  • Milling Machine Inspection

 

Excelsior College

Excelsior College is a regionally accredited, not-for-profit distance learning institution founded in 1971 focused on providing educational opportunities to adult learners.

Polk State College

Polk State College, established in 1964, is a multi-campus institution serving over 20,000 students with Bachelor of Applied Science, Bachelor of Science, Associate in Arts, and Associate in Science degrees, as well as a wide range of certificate and workforce training options. The College also operates three charter high schools.
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Excelsior College and Polk State College: Ensuring Workforce Readiness for the Energy Manufacturing Industries Through Educational Simulations

 

Excelsior College and Polk State College offer two-year technical students comprehensive preparation for entering the skilled trades in the energy and manufacturing sectors, two key industries identify by ATE as requiring more well-qualified technicians. Our institutions are united around a goal to provide as much education as possible virtually, to meet the needs of adult working students, many of who also shoulder considerable family and community responsibilities. To provide the most complete educational experience, Excelsior College uses new technology such as simulations to deliver hands-on learning. The project proposes building, in a virtual environment, the exceptional learning component of industry requirements for earning credentials. Combined with knowledge-based preparation in existing course work, this will now provide online students the opportunity to earn both an academic degree and workplace credential.

 

What is the Energy Industry Fundamentals Certificate? 

It was developed by the Center for Energy Workforce Development (CEWD), a non-profit consortium of electric, natural gas, and nuclear utilities and their associations: Edison Electric Institute, American Gas Association, Nuclear Energy Institute, and National Rural Electric Cooperative Association. CEWD was formed to help utilities work together to develop solutions to the coming workforce shortage in the utility industry. One solution is to fill a gap in industry training. While there are occupation-specific credentials in the energy industry, there is no credential that ensures potential workers gain an understanding of the industry as a whole to make occupation-specific training more meaningful and to understand how one’s company (once hired) fits into the big picture. In many instances, utilities end up having to provide this training after employees are hired. This philosophy of learning the basics before occupational training aligns with the energy industry competency model.