Expanding Technical Career Pathways in Manufacturing for High School Students

Engineering technology programs create pathways for students to pursue technical careers in manufacturing companies. Industry demand for skilled manufacturing technicians continues to grow nationally and even more so in the Salt Lake City, Utah region. The number of students enrolled in the Salt Lake Community College (SLCC) engineering technology program has not kept pace with the increased demand for technicians in the region. Given regional demographics, there is also an opportunity to broaden participation of women and minorities in the manufacturing workforce. Regional middle and high schools that serve a diverse population have tried several approaches to increase the awareness of students about and better prepare them for the technical trades. SLCC will collaborate in this effort with the local school district to increase the number of skilled technicians in the region. The project will do so by building upon a existing, successful model and by offering an engineering technology certificate program for high school students. Upon graduation from high school, students will be prepared to enter the workforce directly or to earn an Associate of Applied Science in Engineering Technology from SLCC after one additional year of study. Given the diverse student population participating in the certificate program, this project will help broaden participation of underrepresented students in the technical workforce.

The Jordan School District, within the Salt Lake City, Utah metropolitan area, has demonstrated success with the nationally available Prefreshman Engineering Program (PREP). PREP includes three years of voluntary, yet extensive, summer programming designed to improve middle school students' understanding of STEM content and make them aware of locally available technical careers. The Jordan School District PREP program draws from a diverse population of students and has had high retention rates across multiple years of cohorts. The goal of this project is to increase the number and diversity of students in the engineering technology program at SLCC, and to support their success and entry into workforce, thus addressing regional industry needs. This project will: (1) add an additional year of PREP at Jordan School District to extend the program into high school; (2) provide early connections between PREP students with SLCC engineering resources; and (3) provide high school students with on-site education at SLCC leading to a certificate in engineering technology, as a one-year waypoint toward a full two-year degree by the time they graduate from high school. The certificate program and the two-year degree program will be based on a competency-based learning strategy, which will free students from traditional scheduling constraints and lead to greater engagement with faculty. Using institutional data and student surveys, the project will assess the effects of the extended PREP program components on student persistence and program completion.