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| Office of Corporate Training (313) 845-9670 OCT
Staff OCT Educational Services
Henry
Ford Community College |
The Technological Skills Dimension The purpose of the Technological Skills dimension is to introduce several areas of manufacturing skills and processes in a context that is relevant to both the employer and the student worker. In the employment sense, the skills targeted in the Bridge may be considered basic, but they are comprehensive for contemporary production employees. Since the goal of the program is to develop skills that can be transferred from classroom to workplace, each curricular area includes instruction with relevance to different companies having different market niches, histories, manufacturing processes and career paths for employees. Participants in the Bridge most likely have little or no background in manufacturing. While technological skills are the core content of the program, these are placed in a broader context of lifelong learning. The Bridge provides an orientation and introduction to advanced manufacturing, and ensures that its students graduate with demonstrable competencies valued by today’s manufacturing firms. It is understood that both company and employee will benefit by the employee’s continued education. A few assumptions were made about how these materials would be used by others outside of our own local team. We have also attempted to provide for their use solely by employers and their training departments or trainers. Towards this you will find in the modules notes about relating and combining topical areas. ASSUMPTIONS: 1. All of the technical modules should be delivered by subject matter experts of the particular technical area. While the level of content is basic, the context for each area must be solid and provide insight as to its use and relevance in industry. This is experienced by those who have "lived" this technology and they should be the ones to communicate this experience to participants. 2. The technical instructors will work collaboratively with other Bridge instructors for the purpose of grounding all of the Bridge instruction in its technological core. In other words the heart of this curricula is technology and all the other areas should draw from this source. This primary technology instructional role should be undertaken by one main technical instructor. 3. The materials used in these modules can be found in any technology-based lab that teaches in these areas. Where specialized tools for the Bridge are referenced they can be found at the project web site or FTP site. For example, the PowerPoint lectures on Manufacturing Processes with instructors’ notes can be found at the project FTP site. 4. The content of the technical modules is written at an introductory level. These activities allow for the critical contribution of subject matter experts to the learning experience. 5. Method(s) for student competence are generally described for each area. Since the goal of the curricula is a solid foundation and demonstrated mastery of basic manufacturing skills, the assessments are similar to on-the-job type evaluations. Where necessary these competencies should be clearly referenced and described so as not to imply a greater skill than was actually demonstrated. For example, in sixteen hours of welding a student may successfully weld a butt joint as well as perform several other types of cutting and joining, but it should be noted that this was accomplished on a particular date and under specific conditions. Students exposure to joining technologies was extremely brief and should not imply an expertise that was not actually developed. 6. The best indicator of the program going right is plenty of student activity and questioning. Using work problems as class examples is particularly effective. The best indicator of things going wrong is a passive silence in which you find yourself lecturing for long periods. If you see this happening, talk with the other instructors, particularly the communications instructor. They are there to help you develop the activities, review sessions, etc. that will get students involved.
This document is available for download here. Click here to go to the Curriculum Index.
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