Automotive Industry Management
- Conference
- Location
-
Salt Lake City, Utah
- Publication Date
-
June 20, 2004
- Start Date
-
June 20, 2004
- End Date
-
June 23, 2004
- ISSN
-
2153-5965
- Conference Session
- Page Count
-
5
- Page Numbers
-
9.248.1 - 9.248.5
- DOI
-
10.18260/1-2--13628
- Permanent URL
-
https://peer.asee.org/13628
- Download Count
-
636
Abstract
NOTE: The first page of text has been automatically extracted and included below in lieu of an abstract
Session 2148
Automotive Industry Management Ronald L. Darby, Jane M. Fraser Colorado State University - Pueblo
Abstract
A unique Automotive Industry Management (AIM) program is offered at Colorado State University-Pueblo. The AIM program combines technical and business knowledge to produce graduates for entry-level management in the automotive industry. This program may be a model for producing technically knowledgeable, business savvy graduates for other industries.
Introduction
Many businesses want graduates with technical knowledge and business savvy, but most technical baccalaureate programs include little business education. The CSU-Pueblo AIM program may be a model that others can follow to combine technical and business knowledge and to produce graduates that industry wants. The AIM program combines coursework for basic technical knowledge with a business minor. The AIM program was designed (1) to cover technical knowledge and business knowledge in a reasonable number of credit hours for a baccalaureate degree, and (2) to prepare graduates for the career paths they follow. The model is not without its problems; articulation with community colleges is difficult.
In this paper we first argue that businesses want technical and business knowledge and that, for at least some jobs, businesses would be willing to sacrifice technical proficiency, while maintaining technical knowledge and adding business knowledge. We then discuss how the AIM program has been designed to respond to those needs in the automotive industry. We finally discuss articulation problems with this model.
We distinguish throughout the paper between technical knowledge and technical proficiency. By “technical knowledge” we mean fundamental, theory-based understanding and by “technical proficiency” we mean the ability to perform skill based technical tasks.
What businesses want
For some technical jobs, businesses would accept reduced technical proficiency in new graduates in return for more business education. Since our program is Automotive Industry Management, we begin by discussing the needs of the automotive industry. We then generalize our argument to other industries.
Proceedings of the 2004 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference & Exposition Copyright © 2004, American Society for Engineering
Darby, R., & Fraser, J. (2004, June), Automotive Industry Management Paper presented at 2004 Annual Conference, Salt Lake City, Utah. 10.18260/1-2--13628
ASEE holds the copyright on this document. It may be read by the public free of charge. Authors may archive their work on personal websites or in institutional repositories with the following citation: © 2004 American Society for Engineering Education. Other scholars may excerpt or quote from these materials with the same citation. When excerpting or quoting from Conference Proceedings, authors should, in addition to noting the ASEE copyright, list all the original authors and their institutions and name the host city of the conference. - Last updated April 1, 2015