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Specifying Competencies in Materials for Technician Education

Specifying Competencies in Materials for Technician Education. Results of a nationwide study involving the materials industry. MatEd The National Resource Center for Materials Technology Education Edmonds Community College, Lynnwood, WA. Tom Stoebe, U. of Washington

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Specifying Competencies in Materials for Technician Education

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  1. Specifying Competencies in Materials for Technician Education Results of a nationwide study involving the materials industry

  2. MatEd The National Resource Center for Materials Technology EducationEdmonds Community College, Lynnwood, WA Tom Stoebe, U. of Washington Bob Mott, Univ. of Dayton, Sinclair CC Bob Simoneau, Keene State U. Mel Cossette, Edmonds CC

  3. MatEd Goals • Develop a set of core competencies in the area of materials technology defining the materials-related skills a technician needs in today's advanced manufacturing environment • Provide faculty with easy and direct access to available teaching materials that will allow them to introduce the required competency-related concepts of materials technology into their manufacturing and engineering technology courses

  4. Provide mentoring and professional development opportunities for faculty members to assist them to better teach the basic subjects of materials technology to their students • Develop the communication systems and web-based resources needed to create a community of users to disseminate and sustain the Resource Center activities. • www.materialseducation.org

  5. COMPETENCY LIST DEVELOPMENT PROCEDURE • Four focus groups rated materials competencies: • Seattle area • Los Angeles area • Detroit area • Cleveland area • A variety of industry types included • Results integrated from all groups

  6. Aerospace Automotive Materials testing Failure analysis Plastics processing Materials education Metals processing Basic materials Composites processing MEMS/NANO materials FOCUS GROUPS – INDUSTRY TYPES

  7. BASIC PROCESS –Competency List Development • Introductions of participants--Materials usage in their companies • Discussions about differences between materials technicians and general technicians • Preliminary list of competencies provided by the project team • Participants requested to identify added competencies • Rating of competencies

  8. COMPETENCY RATING PROCESS • Rate each competency - four point scale • 1 = Vital – Highest rating • 2 = Important • 3 = Desirable but not critical • 4 = Not important • NOTE: Lower numbers are better! • Separate rating for • General engineering technicians • Materials technicians

  9. TWO SEPARATE RATINGS • Focus groups rated preferred materials competencies for: • Materials engineering technicians • Those who work in materials labs • Those who work with materials processing • General engineering technicians • Support for product development • Production operations technicians • Test technicians, chemical technicians, etc.

  10. DATA ANALYSIS • Data from all participants aggregated • Set of competency ratings distributed to all participants • Participants asked to comment • Competency set revised • Summary/reduced set developed • Final results distributed to project staff, participants, partners

  11. Communication skills Workplace performance Basic mathematics Technical drawing Testing Data analysis Units and conversions Computer skills Working in teams Personal professionalism Quality management EMPLOYABILITY SKILLS - IMPORTANT FOR BOTH GT & MT

  12. IMPORTANT MATERIALS-RELATED SKILLS • Effects of defects on performance • Effects of mfg variations on properties • Laboratory skills • General nature of materials: metals, plastics, polymers, and composites • Materials processing • Materials testing • Fabrication processes and tooling

  13. REDUCED ‘75 LIST’ • Combinations and sub-categories created for presenting/reporting results – ’75 List’ • Complete total of 397 competencies is available for analysis • MatEd staff using the full set to acquire curriculum materials

  14. SUMMARY OF RESULTS GT MT • Important (Green) 11 44 • Desirable (Blue) 58 31 • Less important (Red) 6 0 • Totals 75 75

  15. Sample results: Top 75 • Communication • Follow directions and request additional information as needed (1.1) • Workplace Performance • Practice good workplace safety methods(1.2) • Basic Math • Demonstrate mastery of basic arithmetic, including proportions, percentages, etc (1.3)

  16. Use of units and conversions • Manipulate and report accurately units for all calculations (1.4) • Apply correctly appropriate units for physical quantities (1.7) • Computer skills • Avoid inappropriate usage of computer systems (1.4) • Create and use spreadsheets for data analysis, graphing and record keeping (1.6) • Personal professionalism • Manage time effectively (1.5)

  17. Materials Topics: Top 75 • Relationship between processing variables, quality, properties and defects • Describe how changes in manufacturing processes affect materials properties (1.5) • Describe how defects affect properties of metals and alloys (1.7 mt)

  18. Basic materials technology • Define stress and strain (1.4 mt) • Describe fundamentals of a tensile test (1.4 mt) • Describe the general nature of ferrous metals (1.6 mt) • Describe how polymers differ from metals and ceramics (1.5 mt)

  19. Manufacturing operations and quality management • Recognize and address quality and safety issues (1.5) • Differentiate between critical and non-critical defects (1.8)

  20. OTHER OBSERVATIONS • Rating system appears appropriate • Many raters had low expectations of technicians in mathematics, chemistry, and physical sciences • Breadth of raters’ areas of interest was good, however some industries not represented [Furniture, food, electronics, biomaterials, refractories] • Some low-rated competencies still important to some fields

  21. Study limitations • Competency list development process • Adequacy of industry groups represented • Sample size (36 respondents)

  22. Future steps • Broaden the listing to include input from a broader set of materials industries • Utilize this input to develop the core curriculum needed by all technicians who deal with materials • Develop targeted curriculum for materials technicians

  23. Access to full report The full report is available on line at http://www.materialseducation.org/ competencies_report.html

  24. Contacts • MatEd, the National Resource Center for Materials Technology Education • www.materialseducation.org • Project PI, Mel Cossette mel.cossette@edcc.edu • Project director, Tom Stoebe tgstoebe@earthlink.net

  25. Acknoweldgments • The authors wish to thank Drs John Rusin and Laura Collins for their input on this study, along with all focus group participants. • This work was sponsored by the National Science Foundation Advanced Technological Education Program, grant DUE-0501475

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