“The problem is, between education and industry there is still not a good conversation going on. The Centers provide a bridge,” said Phyllis Eisen, vice president of The Manufacturing Institute. Calling the ATE Centers “extraordinarily innovative,” Eisen said that working with them complements the institute’s efforts to promote manufacturing as an appealing career for young people. Without new initiatives like the one the Institute is planning with the ATE Centers, Eisen said, “We’re not going to have the kind of skilled workforce we need to compete in the global economy. The stakes are very, very high now.”
Doug Busch, vice president and co-chief information officer for Intel Corporation, similarly warns of the “center of gravity shifting” away from American workers. During his speech at the ATE-funded Synergy 2004 conference in Nashville, TN, Busch noted that 800,000 U.S. jobs moved to other countries between 2000 and 2004, and pointed out that the competence of workers in India, China, Malaysia, and Russia is growing. He also characterized U. S. math skills as only “fair,” compared to “good” in Asia and “excellent” in Eastern Europe.
“We must react swiftly,” Busch said of the need to make American technicians the most productive in the world. The 250 educators who attended the three-day Synergy conference then went to work creating detailed plans to upgrade the information technology programs at their campuses and add actual industry problems to teach content. The conference was another example of ATE teamwork. It was organized by the Center for Information Technology Education (CITE) and the University of Arkansas-Fort Smith in collaboration with Boston Area Advanced Technological Education Connects (BATEC), the National Center for Telecommunications Technologies (NCTT) and the National Workforce Center for Emerging Technologies (NWCET), The Case Files project at Nashville State Community College, and The Council for Adult and Experiential Learning.
