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This paper describes the original intent and curriculum design of two manufacturing certificate programs funded by a National Science Foundation (NSF) Advanced Technological Education (ATE) award at a community college in Massachusetts. It also describes salient features of this project including a focus on recruiting Liberal Arts majors for emerging jobs in the manufacturing sector, as well as the requirement of an experiential learning component. The paper further discusses what the team learned about student recruitment and employer engagement over the next three years. It also discusses how the team responded to the emerging needs of the student and manufacturing community through collaboration and teamwork. Finally, the paper presents a set of tools and recommendations for institutions interested in developing new academic programs in manufacturing to engage with all the stakeholders including prospective students, departments and other partners.

Unlike technical graduates such as engineering and science, liberal arts graduates usually encounter difficulty finding jobs in their majors. A good percentage of them becomes under-or unemployed. This paper investigates and discusses an innovative approach to address this problem. We provide these students with an accelerated 12-month certificate in advanced manufacturing to help them apply for manufacturing positions. The paper discusses the design and content of the certificate.

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Liberal Arts (BA) graduates are, more often than not, either underemployed or unemployed in the field(s) for which they received their degree. This is more so true in hard economic and recessionary times. It is also well known that BA graduates are well rounded by virtue of their education and are more adept at changing careers. Advanced manufacturing is one such career where BA graduates may excel, especially in entry-level positions such as CAD operators, CNC programmers, production supervisors, and in support staff roles. The challenge is how to prepare these non-technical majors (BA graduates) for technical careers (advanced manufacturing). This paper presents an internship model that is part of a 12-month fast track certificate in advanced manufacturing to enable BA graduates to gain both the technical skills and experiential knowledge they need to secure jobs in advanced manufacturing. This paper describes the certificate academic program, corresponding courses, and the recruitment process of BA graduates to provide context. It then focuses on the details of the internship model: recruiting industry partners to provide internships, preparing students for the internships, the management and support system of these internships, and lessons learned so far. These research findings are part of an NSF, 3-year grant that investigates a transformation model of BA graduates for careers in advanced manufacturing.