Curriculum development for robotics technology program

Abstract

With a growing need for a more skilled workforce, providing industry-driven and employment-centric training services is an important national priority. Over 3.4 million manufacturing jobs will need to be filled across the United Sates over the next decade. The skills gap is becoming greater based on the statistics provided by the Global Robotics Technology Market: Forecast, 2014-2020 published by Research and Markets, reporting that the worldwide robotics market is forecast to grow from the 2015 level of $26.98B to $82.78B in 2020. This 11 % compounded average growth in the next five years is unprecedented. Given the anticipated growth of the robotics industry, the number of jobs that will be required to meet the demand will grow exponentially as well. The future is bright for careers in STEM fields; today, the average annual salary for a STEM worker is $33,200 higher than the average of all U.S. workers, making the need for a novel robotics credential imperative. The curriculum development explained in this paper in the area of Advanced Robotics for Manufacturing was carried out broadly in two phases: Phase I of the project focused on investigating and compiling the curricula offered by different community colleges, work force education programs in universities and other industry certificate programs in the Commonwealth of Virginia and then in other states. Phase II of this project focused on curriculum development at CCAM (Commonwealth Center for Manufacturing, VA) that improves/adds the topics, compliments and fills the gap from the data gathered in the first stage. Phase II was not only based on the data generated in Phase I, but also was informed by data gathered from industry needs and new technologies that are required in the manufacturing robotics area. The next phase include implementing the developed curriculum at Community College level and at 4-year degree colleges.