Community College of Baltimore County
Baltimore, MD
- Prepares students for manufacturing and engineering technology careers.
- Produces flexible, responsive, and current industry-driven curricula.
- Updates faculty skills through innovative professional development experiences.
- Promotes a positive image of manufacturing and engineering technology careers.
- Builds strategic partnerships among industry, education, and government stakeholders.
TIME Center Focuses Students on Emerging Careers
TIME Center and its partners support careers in manufacturing and engineering technology aligned with innovative production techniques, robotics, and automated systems. New and updated curricular efforts highlight the new skills that advanced manufacturers need.
TIME Center supports professional development for secondary school teachers and college faculty through learning projects that provide opportunities to utilize new technologies. The educators learn to transfer this new knowledge to students through applications, simulations, and problem-solving experiences.
Through a partnership with the Maryland Business Roundtable, the center is improving the perception of manufacturing and is encouraging students to pursue careers in manufacturing and engineering. The You and Improved career campaign will use the TIME Center’s Web site to direct high school students to information about related community college programs.
TIME Center Advances Workforce Needs
TIME Center addresses Maryland’s manufacturing and engineering technician workforce needs in a planned and purposeful way. Gathering data on emerging needs directly from manufacturers and organizations, such as the Regional Manufacturing Institute and the Governor’s Workforce Investment Board, the center and its 5 college partners develop industry-responsive curricula and provide high-quality professional development programs. Most importantly, the center and its partners promote technician education programs to prospective students.
TIME Center’s accomplishments include a variety of new associate of applied sciences degree programs, new certificates, and course upgrades. TIME Center and its partners are collaborating in the development of 5 core electronics courses that will be offered in an online blended format. Partners also helped the center implement a FAB Lab at the Community College of Baltimore County to provide access to design and prototyping capabilities for industry, students, and the community.
As a result of the center’s many initiatives, enrollments are growing in partner colleges’ manufacturing and engineering technician programs. When TIME Center began in 2003, 1,979 students were enrolled in these programs. In 2010, enrollment was 3,448. During this 7-year period, a total of 18,215 individuals took credit and noncredit courses in TIME Center-affiliated college programs. Annual enrollment in high school programs grew from 5,200 to 9,588.
More students from underrepresented populations are among those enrolling. Enrollment by minority students increased 86% from 396 in 2005 to 740 in 2010. Enrollment by women increased 65% from 341 in 2005 to 563 in 2010. With its industry partners, TIME Center has also introduced 1,788 secondary and post-secondary educators to the new world of manufacturing. The center’s outreach efforts have involved contact with more than 10,260 individuals since 2003.
In recognition of its continuing successes, TIME Center received the 2010 Maryland Advocacy Award of Excellence from the Technology Education Association of Maryland.