Weld-Ed Accomplishments Ken Smith, MBA, CPP Manager of Training Projects & Principal Investigator -NSF DUE Lorain County Community College / Weld-Ed National Center for Welding Education & Training

Weld-Ed Accomplishments  Established a national skill panel to gather “forward data” about the United States welding / materials joining industry.

Weld-Ed Accomplishments  Established five local / regional skill panels at Weld-Ed partner locations.

Weld-Ed Accomplishments  Participated in the FabTech / AWS Show to share information about Weld-Ed and to gather information on industry and employer needs.

Weld-Ed Accomplishments Participated in various conferences including the –National Coalition of Advanced Technology Centers (NCATC) –National Council on Workforce Education (NCWE) –National Association of Workforce Boards (NAWB) –National Science Foundation Advanced Technological Education (NSF-ATE) – Principal Investigators Annual Conference, –American Association of Community Colleges (AACC) Workforce Development Institute (WDI)

Weld-Ed Accomplishments  Completed two, two-week summer training sessions for welding / materials joining educators during the summer of 2008.

Weld-Ed Accomplishments  Surveyed 650 schools that offer welding / materials joining programs to gather information about those programs for the new Weld-Ed cataloged database of schools offering training.

Weld-Ed Accomplishments  Created a national report outlining the current need for welders, welding technicians, welding inspectors, and welding engineers throughout the U.S. which validated the American Welding Society (AWS) claim regarding the need for 500,000 new and replacement welders over the next 10 years.

Weld-Ed Accomplishments  Investigated the potential for establishing an employment database to provide opportunities for the welding / materials joining industry to recruit new talent into the pipeline as well as to meet the needs of incumbent workers. JobCentral and AWS are also potential partners in this endeavor.

Weld-Ed Accomplishments  Conducted initial research regarding the need for educator externships and externship models that currently exist which can potentially be replicated. (The model is under development with a fall 2008 roll-out planned.)

Weld-Ed Accomplishments  Developed an initial design for recruitment tools for traditional welding audiences as well as women, minorities, and people with disabilities.

Weld-Ed Accomplishments  Investigated the potential for developing welding training programs for delivery to non-traditional audiences such as incarcerated individuals.

Weld-Ed Accomplishments  Developed a program designed to use technology based learning for training welding technicians via distance learning methodologies coupled with short-term “hands-on” lab training modules.