Over the past few months, Yavapai College’s Career and Technical Education (CATE) campus has had the benefit of working on a National Science Foundation (NSF) grant aimed at internships for two program areas, Applied Pre-Engineering and Integrated Systems Engineering Technician.
An internship is an official or formal program that provides practical experience for beginners in an occupation or profession. The Applied Pre-Engineering AAS degree is designed to provide students with a working knowledge of engineering concepts. The Integrated Systems Engineering Technician certificate prepares individuals to apply basic engineering principles and technical skills to the identification and resolution of production problems in the manufacture of products. Both of these programs are part of the Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) pathways.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average median U.S. salary for engineering technicians is $63,660 per year. Engineering technicians help solve technical problems. They build or set up equipment, conduct experiments and collect data and calculate results. To date, 10 students in these two programs have participated in the NSF internships with five companies.
Individuals in these areas usually have work styles and values that include attention to detail, analytical thinking skills, dependability, adaptability and flexibility. They are supportive, cooperative, build relationships to provide services to others and enjoy job security and good working conditions.
The work experiences linked with the educational experiences have benefited both the students and the organizations. Part of the internship learning responsibility of the students and the company mentors is problem-based learning (PBL). The mentors present to the students a problem that the students would then have to analyze and present a workable solution back to the mentor. This PBL process focus is on a real issue, in real time, and needs real results. The goal of PBL is to prepare students for their academic challenges, but also crosses over into their personal and their future career successes. By using this method in the workplace, students gain knowledge and skills in response to the problems presented by the company mentor.
A recent example of a PBL experience was student’s development of process documentation. By doing the documentation of the process, students learned about “Best Practices” and areas that may need a quality review to improve efficiency of the process. The process documentation helps to maintain standards, train employees and become efficient. This process documentation of input, outputs, procedures, responsibilities and objective can then lead into the development of Standard Operating Procedures (SOP).
Companies that have provided the opportunity for our students in our CATE programs to do an internship with their organization have some of our best students. Feedback from students in the internships have all agreed that participation has provided them with hands-on experience, relevant information about the field, improved their technical skills and helped improve the problem-solving skills.
Part of the goal is for students to be so successful during the internship that an offer of a full-time permanent position can be made upon completion of the academic training – degree or certificate. This has been the case with two of our degree completing students as they graduate at the end of this spring term. QCBN
By Jim Voska
For more information on Yavapai College’s STEM programs, contact Linda Brannock (linda.brannock@yc.edu), Career Coach, Yavapai College Student Services and/or Jim Voska (james.voska@yc.edu), Career Coach, CTEC.
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