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Programs for Incumbent Worker Training |
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 The Industrial Maintenance Training Center (IMTC) of PA provides training in the skills necessary to perform industrial maintenance tasks in today’s world class manufacturing operations. The IMTC is a program of the Mid-Atlantic Mechatronics Partnership and is funded through fees paid by employers and state and federal grants obtained through the Workforce Investment Boards of Lancaster and Berks counties.
Training: Anytime... Anywhere
Training is provided by a combination of on-line e-learning and hands-on labs using real industrial equipment. New students are enrolled each week and students proceed at a pace agreed to by themselves and their employer. Course work, that is available via e-learning, may be completed at any time and from any place where a high speed internet connection is available to the student. Laboratory time may be scheduled at the student’s convenience Monday through Saturday, morning, afternoon or evening. This method of scheduling and delivery provides the ultimate in flexibility for working maintenance technicians who often find it difficult to schedule themselves for conventional training classes.
Students may enroll in one of two complete multi-disciplinary certificate programs (AM/IST-1 or AM/IST-2), discipline-specific courses, or short topical classes that have been designed by adult education experts based upon requirements established by leading manufacturers. All completed coursework may be applied toward college credit. Students may also obtain credit for existing skills and knowledge through a testing program that eliminates the need of repeating coursework in topics already mastered. Employers may also use this testing program as a yardstick to gauge the skills of employees who are entering the program. Finally, for employers with special needs, customized training programs may be developed. |
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Automation and Mechatronics |
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Chicago: An article by Marty Weil in the January 2010 edition of Automation World illustrates the close connection of skills in automation and mechatronics. "Automation draws together multiple threads of knowledge with little regard for traditional domain boundaries: machine design from mechanical engineering, control theory from electrical engineering, software from computer science, and methods for design and integration from systems engineering.
This synthesis that comprises automation evolved in an unprecedented, cooperative effort on the part of government, industry and academia to build control systems for the aerospace projects of the 1960s and 1970s. Then industry rapidly adopted automation in petroleum refineries, chemical plants, paper mills, water treatment facilities and the like. Automation systems soon became an essential-and largely invisible-part of society's industrial infrastructure.
But with principles expressed in terms of the calculus or Fourier transforms and practices learned empirically in specialized environments, a coherent treatment of automation was never adequately incorporated into high school, technical school and undergraduate university curricula. The broad foundations necessary for continuity were not developed. And now, the people who developed the conceptual synthesis, as well as those who kept the systems operational, are retiring or have already done so." Keith Campbell points out that "this is an article that shows that mechatronics and automation are closely related careers". To see the entire article, click here. |
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Regional WIB Directors encourage IMTC efforts |
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Thirteen Workforce Investment Board Directors in South Eastern Pennsylvania and the immediately adjoining areas of New Jersey and Delaware have recognized the need for workers trained in the multi-disciplinary area of mechatronics to fill industrial maintenance jobs in industries that are key to the region. These industries include pharmaceutical and medical device manufacturing, food and beverage processing, cosmetics, and other consumer goods manufacturing and packaging.
Recognizing the highly successful program in industrial maintenance and mechatronics that is already underway by the Industrial Maintenance Training Center of PA in the Lancaster and Berks county region of PA, these WIB Directors authorized a study to be conducted to determine the feasibility of extending this program into the larger region by taking advantage of existing assets, leveraging the lessons already learned and minimizing the time and resources needed. The study was funded with a US DOL Regional Innovation Grant administered by the Lancaster County Workforce Investment Board.
The work was undertaken beginning in the Summer of 2008 and extending into early 2009. The completedreport provides preliminary recommendations outlining the greatest opportunity areas for extending this education and training program and creating a shared resource pipeline across the entire region.Asa result of the report, efforts have beenbegunto expand the base-level training in the region and articulate new and existing programs to ReadingArea Community College. Read the entire report here. |
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Mechatronics Competency Model Recognized by US Department of Labor |
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Arlington, VA: This week, the Packaging Machinery Manufacturers Institute (PMMI) announced that its skill standards for mechatronics have been included in the Competency Model Clearinghouse of the U.S. Department of Labor (US DOL). See the model by clicking here.
In its role as information broker, the Employment and Training Administration of US DOL developed the Competency Model Clearinghouse, a Web site that provides information about and access to industry competency models, tools to build competency models and career ladders/lattices, and a database of competency-based resources.
Mechatronics is the synergistic application of mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, control engineering, and computer science to make useful products. It is a skill and knowledge set used by mechatronics engineering technicians to assure that the automation which drives modern manufacturing delivers its potential for higher productivity and output. Packaging is a multi-billion dollar a year industry which is at the heart of the production of consumer products such as food, pharmaceuticals, beverages, and other industries.
PMMI worked closely with the Mid-Atlantic Mechatronics Advisory Committee, the Center of Excellence in Packaging Operation, and the Industrial Maintenance Training Center of Pennsylvania to enumerate the standards and implement a corresponding curriculum with the cooperation of more than 35 companies in Berks and Lancaster County in southeastern Pennsylvania. This close collaboration of companies in the packaging industry uses a 350-hour non-credit training course which articulates to an Associates degree in Mechatronics Engineering Technology at Reading Area Community College (see page 4) to keep a pipeline of skilled workers flowing for its local manufacturers.
A number of other schools from Minnesota, Wisconsin, and North Carolina contributed to the development of the skill standards.
With the development of a Competency Model and the impending introduction of certified skill standards, PMMI hopes that curriculum developers around the country will develop more training and that schools around the country will adopt these standards to provide more training for this important career path. |
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MAMP and PMMI begin work with US DOL on Mechatronics Competency Model |
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Representatives of the Mid Atlantic Mechatronics Partnership (MAMP) and the Packaging Machinery Manufacturers' Institute (PMMI) met in Washington on February 11, 2009 with the US Department of Labor(DOL) Employment and Training Administration (ETA) to begin the process of creating a competency model for mechatronics occupations related to the packaging industry within the hybrid manufacturing space. Eleven competency models have been created thus far in areas including advanced manufacturing, aerospace, automation, financial services, and retail.
The competency model for mechatronics will be based upon the work completed during the Summer of 2008 at the Purdue Workshop on Packaging Mechatronics. This workshop, attended by representatives of industry and higher education, resulted in a conceptual model for a suite of certificates that may be offered nationally by educational providers and endorsed by PMMI. The base level certificates are designed to correspond to the knowledge and skills taught by the Industrial Maintenance Training Center of PA (IMTC) in its Advanced Manufacturing / Intetgrated Systems Technology (AM/IST) programs.
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