Enhancing artificial intelligence skills for technicians to thrive in the digital workforce

Columbus State Community College received a $570,000 Project Grant from the National Science Foundation's Division of Undergraduate Education under the STEM Education program (CFDA 47.076), effective July 1, 2025 through June 30, 2028. This award supports the development and implementation of artificial intelligence (AI) education initiatives designed to strengthen the technician workforce pipeline in community colleges. The project will deliver comprehensive curriculum development in AI skills, faculty professional development pathways to enhance instructor knowledge in emerging technologies, and recruitment and career awareness campaigns to expand access to technician-level positions requiring AI competencies. The initiative addresses the growing demand across all economic sectors for skilled technicians capable of leveraging AI capabilities in research, education, manufacturing, and product development.

The project leverages an experienced leadership team comprising community college experts, economic development specialists, and industry partners to ensure the curriculum and training programs align with current workforce demands. Key deliverables include establishing a promising practices model for AI education in the community college classroom, implementing evidence-based recruitment initiatives, and conducting comprehensive program evaluation with wide dissemination of findings. By prioritizing implementation fidelity and industry collaboration, this project aims to make emerging AI technician roles more accessible to all citizens while strengthening the nation's advanced technology workforce development capacity through community college systems.

Abstract

This project aims to serve the national interest by strengthening the education pipeline, providing students with a deeper understanding of artificial intelligence and expanding their opportunities to pursue technician careers in the digital workforce. Artificial intelligence enables researchers to make groundbreaking discoveries, empowers educators in their teaching, fosters collaborative learning among students, and facilitates efficient product development by manufacturers. With the growing prominence of artificial intelligence in all sectors, community colleges are well-positioned to prepare technicians to better adapt their skills to meet the demands of the workforce. This project will develop curriculum, provide pathways for faculty to upskill their knowledge, pilot recruitment and career awareness initiatives, and build a promising practices model for artificial intelligence education in the community college classroom. The experienced leadership team includes experts from community colleges, economic development, and industry. The project will prioritize implementation fidelity with the understanding that artificial intelligence education is a new addition to the curriculum for many community college faculty and students. The evaluation plan will analyze each outcome and provide summative results that will be widely disseminated. Leveraging collaboration with industry partners to shape the program?s needs, the project will make emerging technician-level jobs with artificial intelligence skills more accessible to all citizens. 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.- subawards are not planned for this award.