Vocational Education in the Silicon Valley: Innovation in the Present Tense

San Jose

•Located on the western coast of the United States, in the San Francisco peninsula.

•The first European settlement in California-- known as Pueblo de San Jose in 1777.

•Incorporated as the “City of San Jose “ in 1850, the first state Capitol of California.

•Bigger than San Francisco.

An area of California centering around the city of San Jose, radiating north along the east and west sides of the of the San Francisco Bay, where making silicon semiconductor chips replaced the fruit orchards of the past.

•Located close to downtown San Jose

•Not far from San Jose State University

•Serves 10,000 day and night time students

•Established more than 80 years ago

•An ideal place for vocational education

Traditional Vocational Education

•The cornerstone of our educational offerings.

•Supplies a steady stream of students.

•Allows for risk-taking in other programs.

Cosmetology

•People will always need their hair done.

•Curriculum is state mandated.

•Hours and certification standards are set by the state.

The computer industry

•Started somewhat traditionally

•Began with introductory courses and slowly added new pieces as industry evolved.

•Industry standards were widely adopted.

•Certificates (Microsoft, Cisco network) offered promising employment

Dot Com Boom & Y2K

•In 1994 offered 8 summer introductory courses.

•By 2000 offered 28 sessions of the same course, with 200 students fighting for 40 seats in each classroom.

•Eighteen-year old high school students without a college education were making $120,000 a year.

Dot Com Crash/Y2K Fizzle

•Every high school in California offers introductory and advanced computer training.

• City College enrollment in CIS plummets, declining to about 20 students per class.

New computer technologies evolve.

Have to know when to hold them, when to pick up bold new ones, and

when to fold them.

Innovation in the Present Tense

•On average, develop 15 new courses a year in different areas of computer operation, from encryption to dot-net technologies.

•On average deactivate equal number of courses every year.

•Now only offer 12 high-level computer courses versus the 28 introductory sections of

2000.

New Challenges•How do you educate individuals for this rapidly changing world?

•What happens when an industry moves offshore or dies?

•How do you train for the new fusion of computer science, medicine, and business technology?

•How do you deal with the convergences in nanotechnology, biotechnology, information technology, and cognitive

science

Understand industry.

•Create partnerships.

•Establish advisory boards.

•Develop faculty internships.

•Stay in touch with students who have taken jobs.

•Build good, mutually beneficial relationships.

Advisory Boards

Help us:

•understand industry and the work culture within the industry

•set up competency-based standards

•anticipate industry demand for workers

•anticipate emerging technology

Approval Process

Standard course approval at our college usually takes from nine months to a year.

Industry needs call for immediate action.

Changes affect workers.

Companies disappear, industries scale back, people lose their jobs, and graduates can no longer find

jobs in the field in which they prepared.

What do students need change?

•Need solid basic skills (math & language).

•Need solid basic technical skills.

•Need good interpersonal skills.

•Need good communication skills.

•Need to be prepared for lifelong learning.

How do we help students meet those needs?

Infuse basic skills, interpersonal skills, and communication skills into the curriculum (e.g., students work in groups, work on projects, make presentations).

Offer flexible learning (e.g., weekend or evening classes, short intensive classes, on-line, classes, modules).

Keep students informed (e.g., e-mail, website,

catalog, brochures)

Examples of adapting to our rapidly changing industries:

three cases.

Advanced Manufacturing Technology Training Center

•Initiated by faculty member in a paid summer internship at Intel Corporation.

•Understood the need for clean room product development & opportunities for students.

•Realized it was too expensive.

Virtual Center

•Intel developed the technology used in the classroom and continued to offer technical support throughout the development.

•Also gave financial support to develop a campus Clean Room, computers, and simulation software.

•Industry motivated by the benefit they would

receive from well-trained workers.

“Technology made the Silicon Valley, make your

future in Technology.”

Courses developed include: General Electronics I and II Electronics Math I and II Semiconductor Manufacturing SMT Tool Sets Digital Circuits System Troubleshooting Robotics/ Automation Statistical Process ControlDegree requirements of Chemistry and Physics.

California is known for its earthquakes. Things do not

stay settled for long.

Company takeovers, market fluctuation, a shifting of priorities,

and the relocation of manufacturing centers to low

wage regions of the world lead to a decline in enrollment.

All is not lost.

Importance of clean rooms.

Change in HVAC.

Case II

Photonics/Laser program:

culture clash

Need to understand each other’s culture—especially different time

lines.Eliminating a rigid dean.

Learning to trust—even share trade secrets.

Top laser facility developed.

Faculty member interned at three companies.

New course developed.

Students easily found good jobs.

Economic changes: demand plummets along with

enrollments.

Laser faculty seek other industry potential. Industry is now

developing polymer solar cells, color conversion systems, liquid

defense lasers, flat panel displays, and applications for surgery.

Case III: Polysomnographic Technology I (Sleep Medicine Technician)

The technology of tracking the body during sleep, diagnosing, and treating life-threatening abnormalities is now involving physicians of several specialties.

Pulmonologists, Cardiologists, Internal Medicine, and Pediatricians are a few of the medical specialists opening Sleep Medicine Clinics throughout the world.

The Board of Registered Polysomnographic Technology reports only 7000 Registered Polysomnographic Technicians ( RPSGTs) in the world.

Sleep Medicine Technicians monitor brain, heart, respiration, and muscle functions during the four levels of sleep; use therapeutic interventions and calibrate these interventions.

Course work includes: anatomy and physiology, medical terminology, history of sleep medicine, legal and ethical roles, pathology and nosology of sleep disorders, physiology of hypoxia, sleep/wake rhythms, sleep disordered breathing, instrumentation and frequency/ voltage, monitoring techniques, therapeutic modalities, EEG, EOG, EMG, ECG tracking, PAP calibration, unusual and unexpected events, and computer report generation, storage, retrieval.

Sleep Technician is an example of the fusion of computer science, medicine and business technology.

The monitoring system software, an evolving science, is being developed using computer technology and medicine.

The technicians can also become involved in the business end of insurance billing justification and selling the products used to treat the sleep disorders.

Program planning had to address many issues.

Program development was spearheaded by a part time faculty member recently certified as a RPSGT.

She initiated the original program investigation, realizing recent Health Science curriculum changes at the College would dovetail with the Sleep Medicine needs.

Implementation challenges solved with partnerships.

Physicians offered:

use of their labs for student practica,

to be guest lecturers,

flex time for their staff to be trained,

installation of software on SJCC computers.

What have we learned?eed to maintain a core of traditional programs. (e.g., cosmetology, police & fire training, nursing, construction, etc.)

Need to accept that curriculum developed may not be successful, may never even be used.

Need to trust companies to develop competency-based standards and encourage them to adapt them industry-wide.

We have to do the following:

Find common threads that cut across more than one kind of industry (need for clean room environment in almost all high tech industries)

Make it easy for adult students to become educated—offer courses on weekends, use distance learning, break courses into modules, etc.

Make sure that students are aware of new course development and rely on a lot repeat business.

Infuse communication skills (oral and written) into all technology courses (require group projects, use of e-mail, and presentations conducted in clear manner).

Still have many questions.

How do you deal with tenured faculty whose industry has changed, and they have lost the desire to keep up to date?

How do you use adjunct faculty for new courses, and expect them to take the time to build relationships with industry and spend time on curriculum development?

How do you train new faculty to teach, especially those from industry who are only teaching one or two courses?

How do you compete for faculty with industry?

How do you convince the fast growing, competitive companies to invest in education when they are not sure of their own existence three or fours years down the line?

What does it mean for us when we teach people who have to go back to school and change careers multiple times?

How do we prepare someone for a lifetime of work in this kind of environment?

How can we make transitions easier?

How can we be more efficient with both their time and with the resources we need to address these changes?

In summary,

a rapid pace of innovation and invention now drive the educational process in the SiliconValley. City College has adapted to the Valley’s work culture, sensitive trade secrets, and talent wars. The College has been able to compete and develop curriculum, but like the students we serve, we must continue to learn how to adapt and improve our ability to remain relevant and useful to those we serve.