Progress 09/01/23 to 08/31/24
Outputs
Target Audience:Our project audience includes: 1) high school graduates looking for a skilled worker position in the food industry but are not interested in pursuing a 4-year college education; 2) current food industry employees looking for advancement opportunities but lacking the documentable skills needed for those positions; and 3) employers who are seeking highly qualified employees but are challenged by the low numbers of those candidates. Changes/Problems: The mobile food unit was inaccessible and in repair for most of the past year. This is crucial to deliver the program at the local community colleges. Student numbers are low. IAT and the CANR must develop better ways to recruit students to food processing disciplines. This is where most of our efforts will be in future years. Sustainability beyond the grant of the program is a challenge. The IAT is a 100% RBI-funded program through student tuition dollars. If student numbers do not increase, we must consider terminating the program past this grant's life or securing additional funding. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?- New curriculum/courses that can be easily adapted to meet the learner needs at the various community colleges we partner with for this program (placed-based, regional, local). - Opportunity to reach more high school students to enhance recruitment and enrollment into the program. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?- One news article was published in the local newspaper.https://www.ourmidland.com/news/article/windover-launches-dual-enrollment-program-urban-19878874.php What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?- Increase recruitment efforts - Adapt the program for the main MSU campus partnering with a local community college (LCC) - Move the mobile food unit to all the community colleges that are partnering with this program - Develop a plan to make the mobile food unit and equipment more accessible to communities through the MSU Product Center. This raises awareness and can enhance recruitment efforts.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
Increased community engagement and outreach with one of the partnering IAT community colleges that houses this program. This has enabled us to offer the curriculum to high schoolers who may now seek this as a pathway to the two-year program. Through the course products, students could feed 100+ community members weekly in the district. The mobile food unit has had a more substantial presence in the districts where the community colleges are located and has been able to enhance hands-on lab learning. Before this cycle of the grant, the mobile food unit was in repair and inaccessible.
Publications
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Progress 09/01/22 to 08/31/23
Outputs
Target Audience:Our project audience includes: 1) high school graduates looking for a skilled worker position in the food industry but are not interested in pursuing a 4-year college education; 2) current food industry employees looking for advancement opportunities but lacking the documentable skills needed for those positions; and 3) employers who are seeking highly qualified employees but are challenged by the low numbers of those candidates. Changes/Problems:While using the mobile lab, we identified problem areas in the construction that required repair, which limited its use during the end of the fall and beginning of the spring semesters. The reduction in enrollments at community colleges is having an impact on recruitment into the program, and this has been further impacted by the departure of our program coordinator. We are in the process of recruiting a new coordinator and they will be charged with spending more time at the community college partner institutions in an effort to enhance recruitment into our program. In addition, this person will be charged with meeting with industry personnel in an attempt to increase interest there for engagement in our program by their employees. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Our faculty taught courses explicitly designed to provide students in the certificate program with the skills needed to be successful in positions within the food industry. Students also participated in seminars designed to broaden their thinking about issues of importance in the safe and effective production of foods. To gain even greater experience, students participated in a clerkship where they were paired with a food industry worker to gain exposure to the many types of jobs available to them. A secondary experience available to the trainees was a professional internship, where they were responsible for an aspect of a food industry job. In this supervised setting, students were challenged with performing certain responsibilities, identifying and resolving problems, and establishing new approaches where appropriate. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?We have taken the mobile lab to targeted events in locations where there should be industry, public, and potential student interest in the program. Recruiting efforts have been successful, as indicated by the number of students applying for entry into the program. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?We will increase use of the mobile lab for instruction at the community college sites, which will greatly improve our ability to provide students with the hands-on learning needed. We will also use the mobile lab at events near our community college partners to facilitate recruitment into the program. We will continue working to recruit more students so that we can expand our influence and increase our opportunities to generate the skilled workforce desperately needed by the food industry sector.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
The overarching goal of our project is to conduct a workforce development certificate program designed to increase the number of trained personnel needed by the food industry. Students graduating from the program will have the skills needed to function efficiently and effectively in a variety of food industry jobs. To date, there have been 6 graduates of the program. The certificate program was initiated at 3 community college locations, with 8 students enrolled in the program in September 2020. Students enrolled in the fall 2022 semester included 6 students, of which 4 were Caucasians, and 2 were multicultural. All of the students were female, which shows a positive impact on efforts to increase women representation among food industry employees with the capacity for upward movement in the field. To date, there are 8 students with completed applications and 2 incomplete applications for Fall 2023 entry. Among those with completed applications, the ages range from 21 to 43, and they are all males. The applicants include 5 African Americans, and 3 Asians. We were able to use the mobile lab this year to achieve our second project goal of allowing students to gain hands on experience using food industry relevant equipment at community college locations. The lab is set up to serve as a liquid processing line, but we have the option of installing other equipment to support training using different processing system types. We have completed the review of the program learning outcomes and developed course level learning outcomes and assessment tools for each of the courses. Data from course evaluations are being used to review course syllabi and learning goals prior to initiating this fall semester courses.
Publications
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Progress 09/01/21 to 08/31/22
Outputs
Target Audience:Our project audience includes: 1) high school graduates looking for a skilled worker position in the food industry but are not interested in pursuing a 4-year college education; 2) current food industry employees looking for advancement opportunities but lacking the documentable skills needed for those positions; and 3) employers who are seeking highly qualified employees but are challenged by the low numbers of those candidates. Changes/Problems:While using the mobile lab, we identified problem areas in the construction that have to be repaired. The mobile lab is currently with the builders for repairs, but we anticipate it will be returned in sufficient time to use it in the fall semester. The reduction in enrollments at community colleges is having an impact on recruitment into the program. However, we are conducting more recruiting activities to expand enrollment in our program and allow us to meet the anticipated number of students acquiring this training. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Our faculty taught courses explicitly designed to provide students in the certificate program with the skills needed to be successful in positions within the food industry. Students also participated in seminars designed to broaden their thinking about issues of importance in the safe and effective production of foods. To gain even greater experience, students participated in a clerkship where they were paired with a food industry worker to gain exposure to the many types of jobs available to them. A secondary experience available to the trainees was a professional internship, where they were responsible for an aspect of a food industry job. In this supervised setting, students were challenged with performing certain responsibilities, identifying and resolving problems, and establishing new approaches where appropriate. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?We have taken the mobile lab to targeted events in locations where there should be industry, public, and potential student interest in the program. Recruiting efforts have been successful, as indicated by the number of students applying for entry into the program. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?We will increase use of the mobile lab for instruction at the community college sites, which will greatly improve our ability to provide students with the hands-on learning needed. We will also use the mobile lab at events near our community college partners to facilitate recruitment into the program. We will continue working to recruit more students so that we can expand our influence and increase our opportunities to generate the skilled workforce desperately needed by the food industry sector.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
The overarching goal of our project is to conduct a workforce development certificate program designed to increase the number of trained personnel needed by the food industry. Students graduating from the program will have the skills needed to function efficiently and effectively in a variety of food industry jobs. To date, there have been 4 graduates of the program. The certificate program was initiated at 3 community college locations, with 8 students enrolled in the program in September 2020. Students enrolled in the fall 2021 semester included 12 students, of which 9 were Caucasians, 2 were multicultural, and 1 was international. All but 3 of the students were female, which shows a positive impact on efforts to increase women representation among food industry employees with the capacity for upward movement in the field. To date, there are 9 students with completed applications and 2 incomplete applications for Fall 2022 entry. Among those with completed applications, the ages range from 18 to 42, and there are 6 males and 3 females. The applicants include 5 African Americans, 3 Asians, and one Caucasian. We were able to use the mobile lab this year to achieve our second project goal of allowing students to gain hands on experience using food industry relevant equipment at community college locations. The lab is set up to serve as a liquid processing line, but we have the option of installing other equipment to support training using different processing system types. Our recruiting efforts in various areas of the state are continuing with the goal of increasing the number of students enrolled and graduating from the program.
Publications
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Progress 09/01/20 to 08/31/21
Outputs
Target Audience:Our project audience includes high school graduates looking for a skilled worker position but are not interested in pursuing a 4-year college education, current employees looking for advancement opportunities but lacking the documentable skills needed for those position as, and potential employers who are seeking highly qualified employees but are challenged by the low numbers of those candidates. Changes/Problems:Our major challenge with full implementation of our program has been the restrictions on in person education caused by the pandemic. As a result we were unable to conduct many of the laboratory courses, which reduced the required expenditures for supplies, transport of the mobile lab, or travel associated with the instructors going to the learning site to conduct courses with the mobile lab. Now that restrictions are lifted, we anticipate no further changes to our approach will be necessary. We anticipate no new problems, assuming the current reduction in pandemic cases continues into the next academic years. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Our faculty taught courses explicitly designed to provide students in the certificate program with the skills needed to be successful in positions within the food industry. Students also participated in seminars designed to broaden their thinking about issues of importance in the safe and effective production of foods. To gain even greater experience, students participated in a clerkship where they were paired with a food industry worker to gain greater exposure to the type of jobs available to them. A secondary experience available to the trainees was a professional internship, where they were responsible for an aspect of a food industry job. In this supervised setting, students were challenged with performing certain responsibilities, identifying and resolving problems, and establishing new approaches where appropriate. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Recruiting efforts have been successful, as indicated by the growing number of students enrolled and applying for entry into the program. Discussions are occurring with administrators at other community colleges to further develop the options for regional training. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?We will be able to use the mobile food processing lab for the first time in the next year, which will greatly improve our ability to provide students with the hands-on learning needed. We will be working to recruit more students at additional community colleges in the state so that we can expand our influence and increase our opportunities to generate the skilled workforce desperately needed by the food industry sector.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
The overarching objective of this proposed program is to deliver a dual certificate and Associate's degree program in FPTS that will train a new generation of highly qualified employees to meet the critical workforce needs in the State of Michigan and beyond. A secondary objective is to determine whether the use of state-of-the-art (SotA) mobile food processing and safety laboratories can be used to deliver training across multiple community colleges reducing the need for community colleges to invest in expensive, unique infrastructure required to train the future workforce. The overarching goal of our project is to conduct a workforce development certificate program that can increase the number of trained personnel needed by the food industry. Students graduating from the program will have the skills needed to function efficiently and effectively in a variety of food industry jobs. The certificate program was initiated at 3 community college locations, with 8 students enrolled in the program in September 2020. The students range in age from 20 to 51 years and include 6 females and 2 males. Student ethnicities include 5 Caucasians, 1 multicultural, 1 international, and 1 for which an ethnicity was not reported. The distribution in ages reflect students entering after graduation from high school, as well as older existing workers looking for advancement opportunities. The gender distribution shows a positive impact on efforts to increase women representation among food industry employees with the capacity for upward movement in the field. To date, there are 8 students with completed applications and 6 incomplete applications for Fall 2021 entry. Among those with completed applications, the ages range from 18 to 37, and there are 3 males and 5 females. Although we received the mobile unit needed to address our second goal in time to conduct courses using it, the pandemic prevented us from doing so. It was not possible to hold in person courses this last year, and the interior dimensions would not allow sufficient distance between students to maintain safety once it was possible to consider conducting some lab courses in person. It is ready for use in the fall of 2021 to support two of the hands-on learning courses requiring a liquid processing line. Students from the first class will be able to complete the degree and certificate requirements this year and will be able to proceed into the workforce or decide to pursue a 4-year degree. As we continue to increase students in the program, our capacity to provide trained workers to the food industry will be enhanced.
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