Jones, F., & Mardis, M. (2022, August), Do They Need What We Teach? A Comparative Study of What Advanced Manufacturing Frameworks Require and What Employers Desire  Paper presented at 2022 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Minneapolis, MN. 10.18260/1-2--40822

\bibitem{asee_peer_40822}
  Jones, F., \& Mardis, M. (2022, August), \emph{Do They Need What We Teach? A Comparative Study of What Advanced Manufacturing Frameworks Require and What Employers Desire}
  Paper presented at 2022 ASEE Annual Conference \& Exposition, Minneapolis, MN.
  10.18260/1-2--40822

Faye Jones and Marcia Mardis.  "Do They Need What We Teach? A Comparative Study of What Advanced Manufacturing Frameworks Require and What Employers Desire".  2022 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Minneapolis, MN, 2022, August.  ASEE Conferences, 2022.  https://peer.asee.org/40822 Internet.  29 Apr, 2025

\bibitem{asee_peer_40822}
  Faye Jones and Marcia Mardis.
  "Do They Need What We Teach? A Comparative Study of What Advanced Manufacturing Frameworks Require and What Employers Desire".
  \emph{2022 ASEE Annual Conference \& Exposition, Minneapolis, MN, 2022, August}.
  ASEE Conferences, 2022.
  https://peer.asee.org/40822 Internet.  29 Apr, 2025

@INPROCEEDINGS{asee_peer_40822
author = "Faye Jones and Marcia Mardis"
title = "Do They Need What We Teach? A Comparative Study of What Advanced Manufacturing Frameworks Require and What Employers Desire"
booktitle = "2022 ASEE Annual Conference \& Exposition"
year = "2022"
month = "August"
address = "Minneapolis, MN"
publisher = "ASEE Conferences"
note = {https://peer.asee.org/40822}
number = {10.18260/1-2--40822}
}

TY  - CPAPER
AB  - Many undergraduate-serving institutions develop technicians that can meet local and nearby industry needs. In particular, advanced manufacturing (AM) educational program leaders at these institutions work toward continuity and consistency in the knowledge, skills, and abilities (i.e., competencies) that graduates gain for the workforce. While many institutions have employer advisors, few compare these stakeholders’ feedback to mandated state curriculum content to actual classroom content. Guided by the research question “to what degree does the Florida AM Curriculum Frameworks reflect the needs of AM employers,” we compared the State of Florida’s mandated AM two-year program curriculum to AM employer demands expressed in job postings. Unlike traditional alignment research, which is conducted from the perspective of postsecondary institutions and written with the assumption that two-year programs teach what employers want, in this study, we explored competencies from the employers’ perspectives. Using a constant comparative text analysis method, we first analyzed 108 publicly available job postings from Florida employers who were recruiting AM and engineering technicians. Then, we extracted the job postings’ key knowledge areas and competency levels and compared them to the Florida Department of Education’s (FLDoE) AM curriculum framework. We identified the prevailing knowledge areas taught in the FLDoE curriculum framework and assessed the degree to which employers 1) expressed the same entry-level competencies; 2) suggested higher- or lower-level competencies; or 3) stated that competencies not in the postings or curricula were more important. We conclude by discussing varying levels of alignment between what employers need and what AM curricula contain and suggest opportunities to improve industry-education partnerships and strengthen formal and informal two-year program curricula to prepare graduates for future technician employment. We also explore the positive and negative implications of curriculum changes based on industry needs.
AU  - Faye Jones
AU  - Marcia Mardis
CY  - Minneapolis, MN
DA  - 2022/08/23
PB  - ASEE Conferences
TI  - Do They Need What We Teach? A Comparative Study of What Advanced Manufacturing Frameworks Require and What Employers Desire
UR  - https://peer.asee.org/40822
DO  - 10.18260/1-2--40822
ER  -