Engineering Technology curriculum provides wide spread knowledge in problem solving, management of resources, and process planning. Manufacturing is important and has great impact on economic development. Thus, it is imperative to provide pathways for students to pursue careers in the manufacturing field.
This paper discusses the development and implementation of articulated college credit for holders of the certification for manufacturing. This certification was developed by Louisiana Economic Development Department and offered by different technical and community colleges in the state. It requires the completion of one year of training on manufacturing oriented topics to include: Introduction to Manufacturing, Tools and Equipment Used in Manufacturing, and Introduction to Fabrication, Process Technology and Machining. Engineering Technology is an applied discipline, and these topics can articulate to 4-year Bachelor of Science programs. The process for awarding college credit for certification for manufacturing is described. The paper provides justification used to map certification for manufacturing curricula to courses in the selected Engineering Technology program. The paper concludes by discussing how to use this articulation to recruit students and devises a data collection plan to track the impact of implementing the articulation of certification for manufacturing on the economic development in the state of Louisiana.
Dr. Ali Ahmad is the Director of Operations for the Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP) of Louisiana, which operates under the Louisiana Community and Technical College System. Dr. Ahmad is a professional with over 16 years of experience in industrial engineering, research and management fields. He was previously an Associate Professor and Head of the Engineering Technology Department at Northwestern State University of Louisiana. He obtained his Ph.D. in Industrial Engineering from the University of Central Florida. Dr. Ahmad has diverse expertise in human-computer interaction, quality engineering, and simulating manufacturing systems. Ali worked on projects related to transfer of training, user-centered design, process improvement, and virtual environments. Dr. Ahmad is a Certified Simulation Analyst and a Certified Six Sigma Black Belt.
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