Technical Skill Attainment

1. Technical Skill Attainment A Post-Secondary Perspective Christine Pigsley, Dean Dakota County Technical College Dakota County Perkins Consortium

2. 2 Objectives for Skill Assessment • Microscopic- to dissect what we teach, how we teach, and where to make improvements for better student outcomes. “Close the loop!” • Telescopic- to engage with the larger business community & other learning communities to fully prepare our students to be successful in the workplace. *Internal philosophy cannot simply be about meeting government or grant requirements

3. Key Challenges for Skills Attainment implementation • Which instrument to use? • Can’t do it unless you know what you want to measure (talk to both business & academic community) • How will we pay for it or do we? • How do we sell it to the faculty? • We don’t want to force “teaching to the test” that impedes the richness of technical education • Don’t assume all faculty have experience in assessment • When do we give it? • This begs the question: how are you going to use it? • How do we make this successful? • Teach faculty & staff how to use the tools • Connect with other college departments who are already using assessment • Establish benchmarks & outcomes expectations not just data collection • Incentivize “closing the loop”

4. What’s In It For Me? • Students: When employers see industry recognized skill achievements it does matter. It can be as simple as showing students how to put it in their resume or E-Folio • Faculty: Course evals can be a popularity contest but true demonstration of an instructor’s talent is in the product of their work. This documents not just the scores but their adaptability and sets those that are innovating apart. • Institutions: Skill attainment and the connection to industry is what can sell your CTE program over another so price doesn’t become as big a factor. • Employers/Industry: There is profit in hiring skilled labor and not having to train or retrain new employees. With a global economy not all students are planning to stay in the neighborhood and companies can feel like they know your college’s quality based on skill attainment to national, global or area industry standards.