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Grant funding promotes careers in technology

By Anne Straub
Brevard Technical Journal

A recent grant aims to prepare today's students to become tomorrow's technology workers.

The approximately $54,000 in funding goes to several groups that will influence students at different stages: middle school, high school and in the work world.

The money comes from the Florida High-Tech Corridor Council, a regional organization that promotes the concentration of technology companies stretching from Tampa, through Orlando and Brevard County to Daytona Beach. The Space Coast Economic Development Commission worked with Brevard Community College, Florida Institute of Technology and the Brevard Manufacturing and Technology Association to apply for the grant, and each of those organizations has a part in using the funds to promote technology careers.

Though they go about it in different ways, each group wants to get out the same message: High-tech jobs are an accessible and rewarding choice to make in life. That applies to everyone, not just the college-bound students intent on earning engineering degrees.

"There are opportunities for people without college degrees to get very good positions in the trades," said Howard Becker, chief operating officer for Intelligent Machines Concepts, a Titusville manufacturer. Becker is participating in the BMTA speakers bureau, an effort coordinated with the EDC to educate high school students about high-tech careers.

High school students fall into three categories, he said: those who are going to college, those who start career-track jobs straight out of high school or pursue non-college training, and those who enter lower-level jobs upon graduation.

"I try to target people on the edge," he said. "I want to communicate with them and help them make that decision that it's in their best interest to move up to the next level."

Also at the high school level, the EDC is meeting with counselors from all Brevard County high schools to show them a nine-minute video highlighting jobs at area manufacturing and technology companies. "These jobs are a terrific alternative to entry-level positions in retail and service," said Jeff Schiff, workforce adviser for the EDC.

Schiff, a retired manager from Rockwell Collins, has shown the video to counselors at about a third of the county's high schools. He plans to make a presentation to vocational education teachers at an in-service day to help equip high school faculties to encourage their students to pursue technology careers.

The bulk of the grant, just over $31,000, goes toward further training of workers already in the tech world. BCC will use the money to add a computer lab to offer low-cost computer certification courses.

BCC already offers certification in a credit mode. Because of the need to sequence courses, the process takes two years. The new lab, which will include 20 computers, will be used for noncredit certification designed for working people to attend in the evenings and Saturdays. Completion will take less than a year.

The programs are extremely popular. "The classes fill up as fast as we can throw them out. If we had 10 labs, I think we could fill them," said Tom Denison, executive director of the Institute for Business Training and Community Education.

The middle school portion of the effort took place in June, when 44 middle school students participated in the Get Smart program at Florida Tech. They used balsa wood planes to study drag coefficients, used a computer program to design a bridge under a budget and formatted an earthquake simulation machine to observe the effect of the force on a building. They also went on field trips to Harris Corp., Northrop Grumman, and the Florida Solar Energy Center.

The weeklong program was the brainchild of Florida Tech engineering dean Dr. Ron Bailey, who modeled it on a similar program elsewhere. The university applied its $18,000 from the grant to other monies to offer the program at a cost of just $50 from each student.

Get Smart - which stands for Gateway to Engineering, Technology, Science and Math Resources for Tomorrow - also includes a program for teachers. Four teachers from Brevard public schools are spending six weeks this summer on the Florida Tech campus, developing lesson plans based on the hands-on activities the students participated in.

"The students who didn't participate will get the benefit of the program," said Dr. Maria Pozo de Fernandez, associate professor of chemical engineering and project director for Get Smart. The program is developing a web site, www.getsmart.fit.edu, that is expected to be operating by the end of the month.

"The idea is to show what engineering is all about," she said, emphasizing the need for students to choose the career early so they can take the right courses in high school.