Industry Aligned Rural Engineering Program

Diversifying the economic and industrial base of rural communities is challenging. For example, rural communities can struggle to produce a workforce aligned with local industry needs. This struggle is especially true for isolated communities in areas with challenging environmental conditions like those found in Imperial County, CA, where the temperature can exceed 110 degrees for an extended period of time in the summer. This area has the second highest poverty rate and the highest ratio of migrant agricultural workers in the state. Although the agricultural sector dominates the workforce, a small group of committed industrial partners has a keen interest in developing a home-grown, local pipeline of engineering students. These industrial leaders have failed to attract qualified candidates to the inhospitable region, leaving higher paying jobs unfilled. The industries represent the energy, water, and mining industries whose employees have overlapping skill sets. This award will enable Imperial Valley College, a rural Hispanic Serving Institution, to develop a one-year Engineering Technology Certificate that will produce the skilled technical workers needed by these industries. By preparing workers for high paying, stable jobs in the local economy, this project the potential to help mitigate the disproportionate impacts of COVID-19 on rural and Hispanic communities.

The certificate program will provide Imperial Valley College students with the classes needed to achieve their educational goals and meet the needs of the local industries. The project builds on three things: an existing partnership between Imperial Valley College and the University of California San Diego, a baseline survey of Imperial Valley College students that indicated a strong interest in an engineering program, and the commitment of local industry partners. To develop the new certificate program, Imperial Valley College will create a new makerspace, adopt curriculum from UCSD, and place students who complete the certificate into internships with local industries. The new makerspace will help educate students and their families about high wage technician job opportunities in industry. The evaluation of this project will inform industry and education stakeholders about how to effectively build and strengthen a relationship between a community college and a four-year institution. This project is funded by the Advanced Technological Education program that focuses on the education of technicians for the advanced-technology fields that drive the nation's economy.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.