Distance-enabled industry-led data analytics technician pathway (ildap)

The National Science Foundation awarded $1,155,006 under the STEM Education (formerly Education and Human Resources) program (CFDA 47.076) to Bridgerland Technical College to develop a Distance-Enabled Industry-Led Data Analytics Technician Pathway. The project aims to address critical shortages of skilled data technicians in information technology and manufacturing sectors in rural areas of the Intermountain West through four key initiatives: 1) Developing an industry leadership team to guide curriculum; 2) Increasing instructor expertise through professional development; 3) Developing distance-enabled data analytics courses to train incumbent workers and women; and 4) Recruiting and retaining women in data analytics fields. The funding will support curriculum development, professional development for instructors, and recruitment efforts through June 2025. Project outcomes include a refined curriculum and recruitment practices that can be adopted locally and nationally. Results will also be disseminated to technical colleges across Utah to expand access to data analytics training.

Abstract

This project aims to serve the national interest by creating a distance-enabled industry-led data analytics technician pathway (ildap) to fill the critical shortage of skilled data technicians in information technology and manufacturing sectors in the rural intermountain west. Data is transforming the economy and society across all sectors. Businesses of all types need technicians who can collect, clean, analyze, understand, and visualize data. Due to dramatic economic growth and the recency of the data analytics field, the intermountain west is struggling to meet the extreme demand for middle-skilled data technicians. This project will create an avenue for incumbent workers to gain data analytics skills and transform how women at home will gain high demand analytical skills in order to reenter the workforce. The project has the potential to generate knowledge of how technical colleges can partner with local industry to produce efficient, engaging, and effective data analytics instruction at a distance to simultaneously prepare participants for job advancement and/or a pathway towards college. Driven by robust industry input, the ildap project intends to resolve the need for middle-skilled data analytics technicians in the intermountain west by: (1) developing a data analytics business industry leadership team, (2) increasing instructor expertise through professional development (3) developing distance-enabled data analytics courses to reach incumbent workers and women at home, and (4) recruiting and retaining women into data analytics. Through robust industry collaborations, this project will develop a refined curriculum and programmatic resources that can be shared locally and nationally. The project team plans to share the proposed curriculum and practices in recruiting students from underrepresented groups. The project results will be shared locally to industry and three local school districts. The project team plans to disseminate results with seven in-state technical colleges regionally through the yearly community of practice meeting. In order to reach the wide breadth of interested parties, the project team will present their work nationally at various conferences and share project products at atecentral.net. This project is funded by the advanced technological education program that focuses on the education of technicians for the advanced-technology fields that drive the nation's economy. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.