A 1-year planning grant was awarded to HCC Brandon Campus by the National Science Foundation (NSF) in April 2002. Funds were allocated to to merge existing attributes and resources within the State of Florida to produce a focused and successful proposal for a National Science Foundation Advanced Technology Education (NSF-ATE) initiated ATE Regional Center for Manufacturing. A preproposal for the Center was submitted in April 2003 and full proposal in October 2003. The proposed NSF-ATE Center would use its federal grant funds to establish a statewide organization that would create and facilitate an optimal high tech, high performance manufacturing education delivery system to develop and enhance the State's manufacturing workforce. FLATE was funded in July 2004 at $2.6 Million for a 4 year period. FLATE has grown to become a well recognized and vital asset and advocate for the state's manufacturing community's workforce needs and the state's career and technical education initiatives.
Now, in October 2007, we are applying to the National Science Foundation for funding to support FLATE an additional 3 years. to continue our work through 2011. FLATE now has over 120 companies on it "corporate honor roll" which recognizes manufacturers who have participated with us in any of our outreach activities (student tours, skills assessment, employee interviews, video production, faculty awards, advisory boards, etc). We have taken over 1660 students, 150 teachers, on tours to over 40 manufacturing sites, responded to over 4,400 self-initiated requests for information about careers and technical education related to manufacturing. FLATE has also provided over 2500 training-hours of professional development to teachers and faculty across Florida. It has partnered with the the Florida Department of Education to develop a new model for career education related to manufacturing in Florida.
FLATE's administrative core is a partnership between St.Petersburg College, the College of Engineering at the University of South Florida and Hillsborough Community College. The Center is housed at Hillsborough Community College on its Brandon Campus under the leadership of Campus President, Dr. Carlos Soto. It occupies 1500 square feet of office space and shares the laboratory resources of the manufacturing/engineering technology program.
The State of Florida has the forth largest population in country, with an official 2006 estimate of 18.1 million persons and approximately 50% of the population is in the civilian labor force (9,000,000). Florida is expected to rise to the third most populous state during the current decade. In 2006, over 5% (400,000) of its workforce of 9 million was involved in manufacturing and related industries. The Florida manufacturing sector is dominated by small manufacturers, many working in components and custom parts, making it a difficult sector to get focused on the details of the current manufacturing workforce needs. In 2002 (most current available) the value of manufacturers shipments leaving Florida was over $78 billion dollars.
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