Opportunity youth (OY; i.e., youth ages 16--24 who are neither working nor in school) are a population who is difficult to engage and retain in educational programs, particularly in community college career and technical education (CTE) programs. OY are an important population to community colleges, as CTE programs culminating in…

The increasing demands on community colleges to broaden access and provide for the community's economic welfare, while maintaining its traditional educational role, have served as a powerful impetus for institutional change. Concurrently, institutions have been forced to explore non-traditional avenues to counteract resource scarcity.…

These four reports provide details of projects to design and implement courses to be offered as requirements for the associate degree program in composites and reinforced plastics technology. The reports describe project activities that led to development of curricula for four courses: composite materials, composite materials fabrication I,…

Technology is and will continue to be a driving force in the United States economy. The U.S. Department of Labor (2003) projects computer and data processing services to be the fastest growing segment of the economy between the years 2000-2010. A study by the National Association of Manufacturers (2001) indicates that more than 80 percent of…

A project conducted by Northampton Community College established an automated manufacturing training center for use by industry in eastern Pennsylvania. The center assists small and medium-size manufacturing firms in evaluating and integrating off-the-shelf technology to make them more competitive in the global marketplace. Comprehensive services…

In order for more individuals to enter higher paying jobs, employers must create a sufficient number of high-performance positions (the demand side), and workers must acquire the skills needed to perform in these restructured workplaces (the supply side). Creating an associate degree in High Performance Manufacturing (HPM) will help address four…

Project TIME (Training Initiative for Manufacturing Employees) was an 18-month National Workplace Literacy Program conducted by Lord Fairfax Community College in conjunction with an automotive parts plant and Triplett Technical and Business Institute in Virginia. Project TIME had three primary objectives: to help employees obtain the basic…

An 8-week English in the Workplace course was conducted by Portland Community College (Oregon) at Leupold & Stevens, Inc. for workers with limited English proficiency (LEP). The curriculum for English as a Second Language focused on job-related support skills and not primary job skills, since job performance was not a concern. Objectives were…

Workplace literacy projects were established at Warn Industries, a winch and hubcap maker, and Oregon Cutting Systems (OCS), a producer of cutting edges supplying the timber industry by Clackamas Community College (Oregon). At Warn, project staff developed functional context materials, delivered instruction to a math class, and implemented a basic…

Leupold & Stevens, Inc. and Portland Community College (Oregon) cooperated in offering special math instruction as part of a workplace literacy project. A needs assessment indicated a problem in basic math skills such as simple calculations on a calculator and decimals, which were used on blueprints. Operators, set-up workers, and lead workers…

Interviews with managers and other staff were used to assess the communication and language development needs of limited-English-proficient (LEP) workers at Lattice Works of Oregon (LWO) Corporation. Task analysis was used by Portland Community College (Portland) to develop a curriculum for twice-weekly classes held before or after shift changes.…