Executive Summary
Program Planning and Assessment Report
Manufacturing
Purpose
The purpose of the Manufacturing Program at Shoreline Community College is to provide well-trained manufacturing specialists to the local area manufacturing industry. These positions might include: CNC operator, machinist, tool and die maker, quality control specialist, inspector, CNC programmer, punch press operator, metal fabricator, or other related position.
Structure
The Manufacturing Program utilizes a strong advisory committee that has supported the program for more than twenty-five years. The College has modified the program to meet the needs of local industry, from compressing the program from two years to ninety days, to tailoring the curriculum to meet industries’ needs.
The College administration has supported the program in times of low student enrollment. The program received a National Science Foundation Grant in 2001; this infusion of resources should strengthen the program.
Process
The process for developing the Program Planning and Assessment Report was followed, and the faculty in the program developed the Report. There was also discussion with the program advisory committee members.
Analysis
The Manufacturing Program faculty believes the program has accomplished its original mission. The program is unique in that it incorporates production into instruction, which provides an excellent learning opportunity for the student, but also creates challenges for the instructors.
The program strengths are ability and desire to change with industry’s needs, support staff and faculty, proactive advisory committee, and strong functional industry partners. The programs challenges are lab support staff; lack of sufficient tooling in support of our state-of-the-art machines, lack of marketing; and the question of production vs. instruction.
The program has achieved a number of its 2000-2001 program goals and objectives. These include creation of new courses to add depth to the present level of training, setup of manual machining lab, creation of new courses to add depth to the present level of training, and updating of present courses to reflect present industry needs.
The National Science Foundation Grant received by the College will focus on four major points:
- Adapting and organizing already-developed instructional models to form a manufacturing technology curriculum that is responsive to regional and national industry skill requirements;
- Developing a Teaching Factory model that develops skills by having students apply classroom instruction to real problems in a work-like setting;
- Training of more than 30 high school instructors, college faculty, and other instructors on how to utilize the modular curriculum system and replicate the Teaching Factory model; and
- Improving curriculum articulation between high schools, community and technical colleges, and four-year colleges and universities.
The staff in the program are focusing on developing new partnerships with area high schools to provide a ready stream of students into the program. Their hope is that this will address the low enrollment issue. They invited a number of area high schools to their advisory committee meeting in October in hopes that it would develop new interest in manufacturing.
There are also plans to start a student chapter of the Society of Manufacturing Engineers and to integrate outcomes of the NSF grant into the existing manufacturing program.
While the program has undergone major changes in the past few years, both in curriculum and in staffing, the future looks bright. The addition of the NSF grant should infuse new dollars and involvement into the program. The instructors are very optimistic
about the future of manufacturing at Shoreline Community College.
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