Engineering Technology AS Degree is a Double Winner at the November FACC Convention

The Florida Association of Community Colleges (FACC) recognized FLATE Leadership Team member Brad Jenkins and FLATE Associate Director Dr. Marie Boyette at the November 2010 Crossroads Convention in Jacksonville.   St. Petersburg College’s (SPC) Engineering Technology program under Brad’s leadership was the recipient of a 2010 Chancellor’s Best Practice Award for recognition of programs that strive to be the most efficient and innovative in the Florida college system.  This program prepares students for employment or provides additional training for persons previously or currently employed in the manufacturing, medical, electronics, aerospace, and other related industries. The A.S. engineering technology degree is a planned sequence of instruction consisting of four specializations: electronics, quality, digital design and modeling, and biomedical systems with one common core. This flexible degree allows for additional technical specializations and certificates that are needed to stay up with advanced technology. Thus, local industry can identify the training gaps that exist and SPC can fill those gaps without developing a brand new A.S. Degree.

                On the same note, FLATE was selected as an exemplary practice by the FACC Occupational and Workforce Education Commission. Dr. Boyette’s presentation at the convention of The Engineering Technology Degree: A Unified Statewide Approach to Meet the Needs of Florida’s Hi-Tech Manufacturing Industry, discussed how the Florida Advanced Technological Education Center (FLATE), a National Science Foundation Center of Excellence in high-tech manufacturing provides educational synergy by connecting industry and workforce needs to targeted educational endeavors at community and state colleges across Florida. The Engineering Technology (ET) degree program conceived, engineered, and coordinate by FLATE is the first fully articulated inter-institutional program of its kind. The winning program at SPC is one of 10 implementations of the ET Degree statewide.