Center of Excellence Purpose:
The Washington State Community and Technical Colleges sponsors 11 Centers of Excellence. A Center for Excellence is a college designated as a statewide leader in specialized workforce education and training for industry that help the state's economy grow. Centers serve as a point-of-contact and resource hub for industry trends, best practices, innovative curriculum, and professional development opportunities. Centers maximize resources by bringing together workforce education and industry partners in order to develop highly-skilled employees for targeted industries.
The Center of Excellence for Advanced Materials and Processing at Edmonds and Everett Community Colleges won the distinction as a Center through a competitive process based on rigorous criteria that seek to ensure Edmonds and Everett Community Colleges are poised to provide statewide educational leadership.
What the Center of Excellence in Materials Science and Processing Can Do:
The Center of Excellence for Advanced Materials and Processing helps community colleges develop or enhance programs for future educators.
We offer:
Website with links to resources, training, and current industry trends in the area of advanced materials and processing:
Mentoring and advising for education programs: telephone conferences, site visits, curriculum consultation, and direct access to industry participation, and training regarding new and emerging learning practices
Resource materials for composites, advanced materials and processing
Annual statewide conference on industry trends and new developments in curriculum and other related activities targeted to K-16 educators
Continuous access to real time industry labor market data in the area of advanced manufacturing sectors like aerospace, medical devices, and marine
Access to resources at the 4-year level around the area of engineering and composite materials
Partnerships with K-16 educational institutions
Access to state-of-the art laboratory
Access to a National Resource Center that collects best practices on materials science programs from around the nation
Access to FAA approved coursework on composites repair
Access to quarterly newsletters providing updates on new curriculum, development efforts around advanced materials and processing, current industry trends, and activities at the K-12 level that are leading the younger generation into manufacturing careers
About Careers in Advanced Manufacturing
When you think of working in the advanced manufacturing industry, what comes to mind? Do you think of the laser technology that makes your cell phone? What about creating composites used for Boeing's new 787 Dreamliner as well as your snowboard? If you don't, you should!
In order to remain competitive, manufacturing companies need to be as innovative as their products and manufacturing processes.
Almost 2/3 of exports from the United States are manufactured.
Manufacturing companies all across the US are scavenging to stay at full employment in order to keep up with demand.
This hunt means that employees are winning, as employers continue to pay top dollar for a skilled workforce. That is why an advanced manufacturing employee's average compensation is $54,000.
To keep up with the technological advances, as well as consumer demand, companies are looking to hire the best and brightest.