3

Education and Workforce Development

In Task 2, the committee was asked to review “best practices in education and workforce development (EWD) for the Manufacturing Innovation Institutes (MIIs), including scale-up methodologies for collaborative efforts by the MIIs in EWD,” as noted in Appendix A. Because this is very broadly stated, this chapter reviews four of the five specific tasks, within that broad category, that the Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD) Manufacturing Technology (ManTech) program asked the committee, in written exchanges and then in discussions, to focus on EWD. The following specific topics examined by the committee at the request of OSD ManTech for Task 2 are discussed below in detail:

1. Workforce education models that are relevant to MII workforce efforts,
2. MII engagement with the Department of Defense (DoD) organic industrial base,
3. The effectiveness of online education in scaling manufacturing education, and
4. The role of MIIs in credentialing for EWD.

The committee’s review of manufacturing and EWD issues as affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, Task 2c, is discussed in Chapter 5.

WORKFORCE EDUCATION MODELS FROM ACROSS THE NATION RELEVANT TO MANUFACTURING INNOVATION INSTITUTE WORKFORCE EFFORTS (TASK 2A)

Task 2a calls for the committee to identify optimal EWD practices from local models across the country that could be adopted to expand MII EWD capability and performance. The committee reviewed a series of models for workforce education, identified from discussions and research from leading educational institutions and programs around the country. The committee’s list of optimal models is not exhaustive, but numerous programs were identified that appear to have solid track records, leading to a series of categories of what amounted to best workforce education practices.¹ These categories, enumerated below, are grouped under curriculum and program design, program content, and scale-up for implementation, with references included to particular illustrative programs. The subsequent section attempts to develop, from that overall list, recommended approaches that appear to be most relevant to MII workforce development efforts.

Optimal Approaches for Workforce Education from Local Models Across the Nation

OSD ManTech has been following many of the workforce development practices discussed below, encouraging MIIs to consider them as they partner with community colleges, employers, and other institutions on workforce issues. Because OSD ManTech and MIIs have limited resources for workforce education programs, finding collaborators is important to leverage their efforts. The National Science Foundation’s (NSF’s) Advanced Technological Education (ATE)² program has supported numerous community colleges in developing new curricula and a number of approaches listed below, including in advanced manufacturing, and has worked with OSD ManTech and MIIs in providing links to the community college programs it supports. The National Institute for Standards and Technology’s (NIST’s) Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP) program has encouraged its state MEPs to support workforce education and has also worked with OSD ManTech

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¹ This section draws particularly from the following two recent studies of workforce education: MIT Office of Open Learning, 2021, MassBridge: Advanced Manufacturing Workforce Education Program: Benchmarking Study: Phase One Report, April 12, https://openlearning.mit.edu/research/additional-mit-open-learning-research (prepared for DoD ManTech; referred to hereafter as “MIT MassBridge”), and W.B. Bonvillian and S.E. Sarma, 2021, Workforce Education, a New Roadmap, MIT Press, Cambridge MA. It also draws from the committee’s numerous meetings with workforce education experts listed at the outset of this report.

² National Science Foundation (NSF), “Advanced Technological Education (ATE),” published July 8, 2021, https://www.nsf.gov/funding/pgm_summ.jsp?pims_id=5464.

and MIIs (see MEP discussion in Chapter 2). Collaborations with these programs could continue. The Department of Labor’s program for Strengthening Community College Training Grants,³ which assists community colleges in building training programs, and its apprenticeship program⁴ could offer additional potential collaborations. Although MIIs are not eligible for Department of Labor funding for these programs, they could cooperate with eligible community colleges on this and other employer apprenticeship efforts.

Individual MIIs have had engagements with organizations that work on workforce education at the community college level, such as the American Association for Community Colleges (AACC) workforce program, the National Coalition for Advanced Technology Centers (NCATC), and the American Center for Advanced Career Education (ACTE). However, the MIIs as a network could engage more extensively with these programs to both build and expand their EWD programs. Within the Department of Defense (DoD), OSD ManTech has worked with the Office of Local Defense Community Cooperation (OLDCC), which has supported grants for collaborations between regions and MII on advanced manufacturing workforce development.⁵

All of the above programs create opportunities to improve and expand MII EWD programs related to the best practices listed below. The committee also notes that this wide range of workforce education programs across a range of federal and DoD agencies indicates a need for significantly better coordination among them to realize potential synergies. The House Defense Appropriations Subcommittee included language in its fiscal year (FY) 2022 report to promote such coordination across DoD agencies.⁶

An example of the possibilities of the role OSD ManTech can play in manufacturing, is its support of the MassBridge project, which is a partnership between the state of Massachusetts’s MassTech agency and education department, five MIIs, the state’s community colleges, its vocational technical high school system, and area employers to develop an advanced manufacturing curriculum for state schools. The practices listed above have been studied by the MassBridge project,⁷ and it is

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³ Department of Labor (DOL), “Strengthening Community Colleges Training Grants Program,” http://dol.gov/agencies/eta/skills-training-grants/scc.

⁴ See the DOL apprenticeship program website at https://www.dol.gov/agencies/eta/apprenticeship.

⁵ See Department of Defense (DoD) Office of Local Defense Community Cooperation website at https://oldcc.gov and its “Defense Manufacturing Community Support Program” webpage at https://oldcc.gov/defense-manufacturing-community-support-program.

⁶ U.S. House of Representatives, Defense Appropriations Subcommittee, FY22 Report, 117th Cong., 1st Sess. July 8, 2021, pp. 14-15, 57, 59-60, 63, 315, https://docs.house.gov/meetings/AP/AP00/20210713/112896/HMKP-117-AP00-20210713-SD003.pdf.

⁷MIT MassBridge.

encouraging its community colleges to consider a number of them through this program. If the MassBridge program is successful, OSD ManTech will consider expanding this pilot program to other states. With OSD ManTech’s existing efforts and potential collaborators listed above on these approaches as background, the specific best practices the committee has identified are discussed below.

Preferred Approaches to Curriculum and Program Design

Employers Collaborate with Each Other and with Schools

Wherever possible, groups of employers could cooperate on providing workforce education programs to reduce the risk and cost to individual employers.⁸ Cooperation also enables smaller companies with variable employee needs to participate in ongoing programs, which become more sustainable. Stand-alone efforts by single employers tend not to be lasting and are subject to cancellation during downturns or to unsustainable build-ups when new contracts come in; collaborations make these employment peaks and valleys more manageable. Individual employer efforts also tend to be inherently inefficient because they often rely on existing employees to do the training in their spare time, which can be sporadic, pulling efficient workers off productive tasks. Better still are programs where primes and their regional small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) suppliers can band together, because productive advanced manufacturing requires adoption across supply chains. Working as employer consortia can generate major additional synergies when there is employer collaboration with educational institutions and state education and labor programs. Educational institutions can help manage the infrastructure for these consortia, taking on the administrative burden for the group. In addition, when a group of employers develops education programs together, they are more likely to serve the students’ longer-term career goals versus training for the needs of only one employer. As noted below, workforce programs that are organized to meet needs of employer groups can more readily incorporate industry-recognized certifications, which can assist both the employers and students, than single-employer efforts. Employer collaborations, then, could also extend to collaborations with regional community colleges and, potentially, secondary schools. Some states have developed common programs for manufacturing and curriculum clearinghouses across their community colleges, in cooperation with industry.⁹ To ensure that these programs meet ongoing employers’ needs, they

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⁸ Bonvillian and Sarma, 2021, Workforce Education, pp. 220-225 and 251-255; MIT, 2021, Advanced Technology, Advanced Training: A New Policy Agenda for U.S. Manufacturing, Initiative for Knowledge and Innovation in Manufacturing, Cambridge, MA, May, pp. 14-17.

⁹MIT MassBridge, pp. 42-43, 93-94 (Ivy Tech, Indiana), 44, 47, and 75 (Ohio Tech Net, Ohio).

have formed continuing coordination mechanisms with employers to coordinate curriculum updates so that educational institutions formulate new curriculum with deep employer involvement. These programs generally call for a higher level of engagement than typical community college industry advisory boards.

Create Statewide Industry and Community College Coordination Mechanisms

A state-wide organization that brings together the state’s manufacturers, which can link to a working consortia of the state’s community colleges, as suggested above, can be effective in delivering strong, state-wide manufacturing workforce education. The state manufacturers can build support for workforce programs with the state government and enable employers to work together to implement workforce programs. This ongoing industry and school collaboration can be a key to developing solid new programs and keeping them current.¹⁰

Reach New Entrant, Underemployed, and Incumbent Workers

Community colleges could develop education programs that can reach all three groups of these workers.¹¹ If programs, including community colleges and employer groups, can reach all these groups, the program set up for each can reinforce the others. For example, a program for incumbent workers at company sites requires close coordination with employers, and this helps keep programs for other students attuned to industry needs. In turn, Community college and employer programs can also reach high school students. These can help break down the gap between school and work, better linking high school students to work opportunities and employers to potential employees. It is also important that the curriculum works for underemployed and incumbent manufacturing workers. The advanced manufacturing skill and talent gap discussed under Task 2d can be filled only by a combination of training new students and upskilling existing workers. So education programs need to reach all three categories of workers to fill the need. Curricula to help incumbent workers could enable them to gain new skills quickly and easily, while accumulating credits for broader certificates or degrees over time. As discussed below, modular programs, stackable credentials, credit for existing knowledge and experience, digital and blended learning programs, and collaborations with employers can all play a role in this.

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¹⁰MIT MassBridge, pp. 41-42 (Florida’s FLATE) and 43-44 (Ohio Tech Net).

¹¹MIT MassBridge, p. 36 (Asnuntuck Community College, Enfield, Ct.).

Embrace Stackable Certificates and Shorter-Term Programs

In addition to full degrees earned in a fixed period of time, educational institutions could provide shorter-term certificates, based on competencies related to needed skills, which can be stacked toward degrees.¹² Shorter certificate programs can help meet the needs of students with limited time availability as well as of employers with particular skill requirements. And certificate programs are not the only approach to shorter programs; credit bearing bootcamps and combined degree/apprenticeship programs are additional options. Degrees that take 2 years or more will still be necessary because having community college or college degrees is increasingly key to career-long employment. But these can be built through a series of related, stackable credentials. These kinds of credentials in turn, can enable short programs where workers obtain required skills and employment faster. These kinds of shorter-term credentials can also ensure there is a pathway toward additional skills and to a degree. There is always a quality issue with shorter programs—do they offer the depth needed for the required expertise? But ensuring they can accumulate and lead to degrees helps to ensure quality. Another key is that short programs must lead to real labor market outcomes—jobs in the field studied.

Use Modular Approaches to Deliver Customized Programs with Standard Quality

Education institutions cooperating with employer groups can develop a modular approach to curricula, creating a series of modules of courses that can be mixed and matched to form certificates and degrees that can fit more specific regional employer needs. Advanced manufacturing is creating a series of new manufacturing technologies and processes, some of which will be needed in some industrial sectors and regions and others in other areas and firms. A modular approach to curricula can allow participating schools to choose those that best match regional needs.¹³ This approach can also enable short, stackable credential programs suggested above. Schools can build upon or rebuild different modules and adjust the stack for specific technologies or software tools, and updating specific modules could prove easier than revising full courses or programs. Curricula, then, can shift

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¹²MIT MassBridge, p. 37 (Monroe Community College, Rochester, NY).

¹³MIT MassBridge, pp. 34-35 (IGNITE), and 64-65 (LIFT, IGNITE; modular approach to curriculum), see LIFT, 2018, “IGNITE: Mastering Manufacturing,” brochure, http://lift.technology/wpcontent/uploads/2018/12/Ignite-Brochure-9.25.18.pdf; LIFT, 2020, “LIFT and Amatrol Announce National Rollout of IGNITE: Mastering Manufacturing Advanced Manufacturing Curriculum for High Schools,” March 4, https://lift.technology/event; Amatrol, “IGNITE: Mastering Manufacturing,” brochure, https://amatrol.com/program/ignite-mastering-manufacturing, accessed May 2, 2021.

from a single established set of courses to a more flexible collection of modules that meet the needs of different schools and employers.

Tie Certificates and Degrees to Industry Credentials

As discussed in more detail in Task 2e, academic credentials are often not an effective indicator of skills when employers are not aware of a school’s programs. Many employers increasingly want the assurance that an industry-approved and accepted credential (often called a certification; see definitions of these terms in the introduction in the subchapter below on Credentials under Task 2e) provides, apart from academic degrees or certificates. Schools that embed an industry-recognized credential into their certificates can better meet employer needs because academic credentials alone may not be enough to demonstrate skills.¹⁴ Because many employers want the assurance of skill knowledge that an industry-approved and accepted credential provides, many schools are adjusting their programs to incorporate them. Embedded industry certificates create a parallel pathway to move students toward good employment opportunities. This practice also helps ensure that academic programs are relevant to actual industry needs.

Consider Multiple Education Program Approaches

A single new educational program may not be flexible enough; development of multiple educational pathways for students could be encouraged. This primarily includes efforts by community colleges, but also training providers and MIIs. For example, one program aspect might focus on developing modules and the short, stackable credentials behind them to be added to existing programs.¹⁵ Another effort could focus on building an additional year for more advanced manufacturing skills in new technologies and processes onto established programs.¹⁶ A third approach could focus on adding work/learn programs with internships or apprenticeships to build the effectiveness of existing programs.¹⁷ Another would be to essentially wipe the slate clear, drop current programs, and start over with new programs to meet new employer needs.¹⁸ No single program will likely be adequate; several would help meet student needs.

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¹⁴MIT MassBridge, pp. 44 and 46-47 (Lorain Co. Community College, Loraine, Ohio).

¹⁵MIT Massbridge, pp. 64-69.

¹⁶MIT MassBridge, pp. 65-67.

¹⁷ Lorain County Community College, “Earn and Learn—Train OH,” https://www.lorainccc.edu/programs-and-careers/industry-training/trainoh, accessed May 2, 2021.

¹⁸MIT MassBridge, pp. 35-36 (Gateway Community College, Kenosha, Wisc.).

Preferred Approaches for Program Content

Emphasize Systems Thinking in the Curricula

Current manufacturing training typically requires “how” skills to operate a particular piece of production equipment, but advanced manufacturing will require not only skill in new technologies but ways to connect the technologies to create more efficient manufacturing processes across a factory. Advanced manufacturing workers will need to move beyond the equipment operator level and will increasingly need to acquire fluency in systems thinking to run the new, connected factory. Therefore, systems thinking, demonstrating knowledge of the “why” not just the “how,” including an understanding of production systems, processes, supply chains, and basic management will be required.¹⁹ Curriculum content will have to reflect this new systems requirement, requiring a mindset change from direction-follower to systems thinker.

Add More Specialized Advanced Manufacturing Options to a Core Curriculum around Systems Thinking

As noted above, there will need to be core curriculum components around the systems thinking that advanced manufacturing processes will require. But advanced manufacturing will introduce a suite of new technologies, from robotics to digital production software, to 3D printing, to production data analytics, to new materials and composites. Thus, a series of new technology skills will need to be added as spokes to the hub of systems skills.²⁰ The advanced manufacturing “technologist” will not be able to master all these new areas, but could select a series related to needs of area manufacturers. Mastering these new applied skills will require a curriculum that incorporates both “hands-on” and “learning-by-doing” approaches.

Break Down the Work/Learn Barrier to Add Work Experience to Education, Including Through Apprenticeships

Education institutions need to collaborate closely with employers on both content development and content delivery, as noted above. But strong programs go beyond that to offer work components that range from internships to more formal registered apprenticeships coordinated with education programs.

A major problem in U.S. workforce education is the disconnect between school and work. While a number of European nations make the flow between learning

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¹⁹MIT MassBridge, pp. 65-66.

²⁰MIT MassBridge, pp. 65-67.

and work relatively seamless through apprenticeships, the United States never built an apprentice system outside of the construction trades. Efforts are now underway in a number of states to make this connection through new kinds of apprenticeships as well as internship and coop programs. South Carolina, for example, has a statewide apprenticeship program and its system of technical colleges closely coordinate with employers on apprenticeships (which are registered with the U.S. Labor Department), with an emphasis on the state’s growing manufacturing sector. The Charleston area now has an innovative youth apprenticeship program linking area high schools, the area community college and numerous employers, small and large, and there are ongoing efforts to scale this program statewide.²¹ So apprenticeships don’t need to be a separate from schools, they can be integrated in “school and work” programs, with “degree-apprenticeships,” which appear to be an optimal design. In some manufacturing sectors, unions as well as employer groups may be able to play a collaborative role working with MIIs on apprenticeship content. Connecting education programs with related work is a clear best practice for education institutions, from high schools to community colleges.

The nation also appears to need earlier career and education guided pathways, which don’t add additional certificate or degree time but replace less essential material with real-world, project-based learning modules that emphasize competencies as opposed to traditional academic “seat time” approaches.²² This approach moves student toward practical learning that reinforces education-acquired knowledge, provides a pathway to afford additional education, and moves students toward career opportunities.

Education Institutions Could Build Remedial Education Elements into Career Programs to Raise Completion Rates

A major problem at community colleges is low completion rates; in many cases only one third of entering students complete their programs. A major cause is that most students have gaps in their education, particularly in math, that require remedial courses that will need to be completed before the student gets to the college-level technical courses that can lead to job opportunities. Too many get frustrated and there is often little link between the remedial studies and job requirements. However, programs that move students directly into technical courses at the outset, with the remedial material embedded within them that clearly relate to job skills, can achieve much higher program completion rates. The Tennessee Colleges of Applied Technology (TCATs) program in has achieved high completion rates at

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²¹ Bonvillian and Sarma, 2021, Workforce Education, Chapter 10.

²² Lorain County Community College, “Earn and Learn—Train OH,” and Bonvillian and Sarma, 2021, Workforce Education, pp. 177 and 190-206.

its 27 schools through these programs. “Bridge” programs in math at the Community College level provide another approach.²³ In addition, the TCAT experience suggests that programs where students go through as cohorts, to provide mutual support to each other, help on completion rates.²⁴ Programs that provide “wraparound” services, giving students with frequent ongoing academic and career support, such as at Lorain County Community College,²⁵ also improves completion.

Preferred Approaches to Scaling-up Program Implementation

Use Online Education Technology to Reach Many More Students and Workers

As discussed in detail under Task 2d, online education can be a valuable tool in reaching more students compared to classroom instruction alone, and it can also be used to enhance classroom instruction. Offerings will need to be blended for manufacturing training, combining face-to-face with online education, and this blending can help expand program reach to much higher numbers of students. New technologies such as virtual and augmented reality can increasingly be embedded in online programs, helping with the learning-by-doing, that is so critical in manufacturing training, and offsetting limited time for hands-on training on equipment. Online platforms, then, can be an effective way to scale the productivity of capacity-limited training programs.²⁶

Ensure Access to Advanced Manufacturing and Full-Scale Equipment

Because of the cost of advanced manufacturing equipment, there is a significant challenge in getting students hands-on learning. Yet employers want students who have actual experience with the latest production technologies. Making advanced manufacturing equipment available will be key. Other full scale production equipment will be needed as well in such equipment centers to ensure students understand coordination of new and current equipment. Such advanced and full scale equipment will require coordinated education approaches in areas like systems thinking, digital thread, and sensors, along with more traditional areas like quality and safety. One approach to making equipment available is for a state to create

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²³ Bonvillian and Sarma, 2021, Workforce Education, pp. 163-164; John Hoops and Complete College America, 2010, “A Working Model for Student Success: The Tennessee Technology Centers: Preliminary Case Study,” Complete College America, Washington, DC, https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED536826.pdf (Tennessee Colleges of Applied Technology).

²⁴ Discussion with Jim Barrott, Chattanooga State TCAT program, May 13, 2021.

²⁵ Discussion with Kelly Zelesnik and Terri Sandu, Lorain County Community College, May 14, 2021.

²⁶ Bonvillian and Sarma, 2021, Workforce Education, pp. 139-152.

regional manufacturing technology centers shared by consortia of community colleges, high schools, and employers.²⁷ In addition to providing efficient student access to equipment, providing companies access can help them test and experiment with new equipment, evaluating how it can improve their production process, and assist in training for their workers.

Create a Thinking Community for Continuing Content Development and Delivery Across Area Schools and Industry

To keep scaling up the best content, existing content will require ongoing upgrading and new elements. This is not a one-time project. It will require continuing collaborations between regional education institutions, particularly community colleges, and manufacturers, to foster content and content delivery updates and new programs.²⁸ So an energized thinking community for this ongoing process will be important.

Translating National Practices to Manufacturing Institute Programs

The above elements constitute effective workforce education practices identified at various employers and education institutions around the country. The committee’s job in this task is to identify these promising overall workforce education models but also indicate how the institutes could use them in their programs. So how do they translate to workforce programs that can be offered at MIIs—how could MIIs take advantage of these findings?

The committee’s interim report on Task 1 (Appendix C) recommended a series of best practice education and workforce development practices drawn from those now being undertaken by a number of MIIs, for inclusion in MII program evaluations. The interim report discusses these best MII practices on pages D21-D22 and D1-D5, set out below, which were based on relevant studies and extensive meetings with experts. Those particularly relevant to the optimal workforce practices listed in section (1) above are briefly summarized below:²⁹

1. Forming regional engagements around workforce education needs;
2. Developing education materials with and to be used in its education and industry ecosystem; and

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²⁷MIT MassBridge, p. 41 (Connecticut regional equipment sharing).

²⁸MIT MassBridge, pp. 43-43 (Ohio Tech Net and Ohio Manufacturers Association).

²⁹ National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine, 2021, DoD Engagement with Its Manufacturing Innovation Institutes—Phase 2 Study Interim Report, April, pp. 4-10 and Appendix C, B-3, included as Appendix E to this report.

3. Developing, with industry and education institution involvement, knowledge, skill, and ability (KSA) elements and corresponding competencies;
4. Working with industry to develop or apply industry-recognized credentials;
5. Developing online education materials available to industry and educational institutions.
6. Mapping skill demand and developing skill roadmaps, both regionally and nationally Many of the optimal practices listed above could inform these kinds of MII workforce efforts, as set out below.

In other words, the committee in the interim report identified a series of best practices for MIIs to adopt in their EWD efforts. The following discussion ties six of these key MII practices to the best overall national EWD practices (listed in section 1, above), so MIIs can try to build these national practices into their EWD agendas. Each of the above six categories listed above, then, is set out below, with the relevant best national practices identified in the above section (1) that can be part of it, shown in italics. The committee developed the following approaches, then, for consideration at MIIs.

Forming Regional Engagements

Manufacturing institutes are developing technologies that can be applied nationally but they will be implemented regionally, in regional manufacturing ecosystems. MII workforce education programs, in turn, will require a regional focus. This means that a number of the optimal workforce practices identified above become relevant in guiding the MII’s workforce engagement. Employer and education institution collaborations are needed for strong workforce programs, so MIIs need to be participants in these collaborations. Cross-industry and community college coordination mechanisms can become part of this approach. MII workforce efforts could also aim, through these regional engagements, at reaching new entrant, underemployed, and incumbent workers. In scaling up regional programs MIIs will also need to consider ensuring access to the advanced equipment needed for their technologies and that they are part of “thinking communities” that update and revise workforce programs as technologies evolve.

Developing education materials with, and to be used by, its education and industry ecosystem: As MIIs participate in regional engagements with industry and education institutions, they can contribute by developing education materials in their technology areas. In undertaking this, the MII can work to include systems thinking as part of an education core as well as spoke material on the MII’s advanced manufacturing technology. The MII, in supporting the development of these materials can also help provide a work element—an internship or apprenticeship—in the

educational programs with their members or collaborating companies. Many MIIs have internship programs at companies and in their tech centers and they could also promote the growing number apprenticeship programs in various states. There may be a natural affinity between MII needs to train skilled technical workers in their fields and apprenticeship programs, which can be promoted in MII partnerships with firms. MIIs could also encourage their education institution partners to build remedial education features into their technical courses, which appears to enable higher program completion rates. Development of these materials needs to be coordinated with industry and education partners. In addition, they can be part of modular elements that can be customized for particular industrial sectors and companies and part of various development approaches. And they can incorporate the approach of leading workforce education programs of stackable credentials within short courses.

Developing Knowledge, Skill, and Ability Elements and Corresponding Competencies

As a foundation for the education materials that MIIs can develop, they could put together the KSA elements needed in their technology areas, and the related skill competencies. These will be the building blocks for technical education in the MII’s field. These KSA elements and competencies could be developed in cooperation with industry and education institutions. They, in turn, can be a basis for stackable credentials and short programs and modular approaches to customized delivery to meet needs of companies.

Developing or Applying Industry-Recognized Credentials

A best practice for education institutions is to embed an industry recognized credential into courses so students can receive and demonstrate both a degree or certificate and an industry- required skill. MIIs can play an important role in their advanced technology areas for industry and education institutions in either developing such credentials with their industry members. If there are already sound industry credentials in their areas, they can advise schools and employers which are strongest or most relevant, and evaluate school programs in their areas. The discussion under Task 2e further discusses credentialing.

Developing Online Materials

As discussed in the section below on Task 2d, online education material could be important in reaching the scale of workforce training needed in new manufacturing technologies and processes. Because of their expertise in their technology

areas, MIIs could play a key role in developing this online material. As with developing other educational materials, a number of best practices for curriculum development apply, including using employer and education collaborations in the development, using cross-industry and community college coordination mechanisms, and reaching new entrant, underemployed and incumbent workers. Online materials can be key to effective modular approaches that fit the needs of particular sectors for firms, can assist with multiple development pathways, and can help fit the need for stackable credentials and short programs. Online can also incorporate both systems thinking and spokes for advanced manufacturing content, and build remedial education into technical training. In updating the online material, participating in “thinking communities” could be important.

Mapping Skill Demand and Developing Skill Roadmaps

In order to construct sound workforce programs, MIIs have been developing information on the demand for skills in their technology areas and creating corresponding skill roadmaps for workforce education programs. In pursuing the latter, many of the best practices cited above for workforce education are applicable from nearly all the areas of curriculum, program content and scaling-up programs.

Table 3.1 provides a summary of how optimal workforce education approaches enumerated in Section 1, above, map onto MII best practices identified in the Task 1 interim report.

To summarize, recent studies and committee expert meetings suggest a series of optimal overall approaches that have been applied in successful workforce education programs in manufacturing. The approaches include curriculum and program elements, program content, and ways to scale the reach of such programs. These approaches, detailed above, can, in turn, inform efforts of MIIs in undertaking what the committee’s review indicated were best education and workforce education practices for MIIs, as discussed in the committee’s interim report on Task 1, and in its supporting Appendix C. For example, developing strong collaborations with employers and education institutions appear to be key to the best workforce practices for MIIs highlighted here. As another example, developing stackable credentials in short programs is an optimal overall workforce education approach that appears relevant to at least five of the MII best workforce practices. The MIIs, then, would appear to be well-served by absorbing many of the best overall workforce education approaches identified here into their education and workforce development programs and the committee recommends this for their consideration.

There is an additional consideration that should be noted here. There is a need for MIIs to network as a group to achieve their overall program goals in workforce education. Specifically, companies will want to adopt a package of advanced and interoperable manufacturing technologies to adopt, not just a single technology.

TABLE 3.1 Relevant Best MII Practices, Mapped to Best Overall Workforce Education Approaches

Accordingly, workforce education programs will need to be grouped to serve employer needs—a firm will not want simply robotics training, it will want a training package for robotics, Industry 4.0 and perhaps additive or other skills. This means that MIIs will need to network with each other to meet company workforce needs. This further emphasizes the need for MIIs to apply education best practices, and to collaborate with each other in the process. OSD ManTech should play a leadership role in promoting both adoption of best education practices and networking to enabling skills education packaging across MIIs.

Findings

Finding 3.1: Recent studies have identified a series of successful and optimal approaches from local models across the nation for workforce education. These approaches, in turn, can be considered by MIIs as preferred approaches as they develop their workforce education programs. In addition, OSD ManTech could expand its cooperation with NSF’s ATE program and NIST’s MEP program, and DoD’s OLDCC program, and the Labor Department’s Strengthening Community Colleges training grant and apprenticeship programs could provide new collaboration opportunities, on these approaches. OSD ManTech could also help strengthen and spread MII EWD programs by encouraging the MIIs as a network to create education packages across technologies and to strengthen ties with programs with connections to community colleges such as the AACC workforce program, the NCATC and the ACTE.

Finding 3.2: In the area of curricula and program development, preferred approaches include: employer and education collaborations, cross-industry and community colleges coordination mechanisms, reaching new entrant, underemployed and incumbent workers, using stackable credentials and short programs, modular approaches for customized programs, and multiple development approaches

Finding 3.3: In the area of program content, preferred approaches include: developing systems thinking as a core skill with spokes of advanced manufacturing content emerging from that core, including work elements in workforce programs, linking to apprenticeship and work/learn programs, and building remedial education elements needed by students into technical training programs.

Finding 3.4: Regarding means to scale-up workforce programs to meet growing needs for students entering technical training, preferred approaches include: online and blended education, ensuring access to full-scale and advanced manufacturing equipment (with related education in digital thread, sensing quality and systems),

and building “thinking communities” of stakeholders to update and improve programs on an ongoing basis.

Recommendation

Recommendation 3.1: OSD ManTech should encourage preferred approaches for workforce education delineated in this report and listed in the above findings be included by MIIs through the best practices set out in the interim report: forming regional engagements around workforce education needs; developing education materials with the MII’s education and industry ecosystem; developing, with industry and education institution involvement, knowledge, skill, and ability elements and corresponding competencies; working with industry to develop or apply industry-recognized credentials; developing online education materials available to industry and educational institutions, and mapping skill demand and in developing skill roadmaps. In furthering these best practices, the National Science Foundation’s Advanced Technological Education program, the National Institute for Standards and Technology’s Manufacturing Extension Partnership program, DoD’s Office of Local Defense Community Collaboration program, the Labor Department workforce and apprenticeship programs, and other agency workforce programs, could be expanded or new collaborators on these efforts. OSD ManTech should also encourage the MIIs as a network to strengthen ties with programs with connections to community colleges that can help build and spread their programs in these areas. ManTech should provide leadership for MIIs in these collaborations and on the MII networking that will be required for creating training packages across technology areas to meet industry needs.

MANUFACTURING INNOVATION INSTITUTES AND THE ORGANIC INDUSTRIAL BASE (TASK 2B)

Background

In Task 2b, the department requested the committee to consider ways DoD MII EWD programs could assist in upskilling DoD’s own substantial manufacturing workforce in advanced manufacturing, at DoD’s depots, arsenals, and shipyards.

DoD conducts research, development, testing, and evaluation (RDT&E) in support of its mission requirements (e.g., Naval Research Laboratory, Army Research Laboratory, Air Force Research Laboratory, Army White Sands Missile Range, Air

Force Operational Test and Evaluation Center).^30,31 These RDT&E activities are relevant to the MIIs in terms of their technology readiness advancement mission, but less so in terms of the MIIs education and workforce development mission. The MIIs have engaged, in terms of education and workforce development, with the broader DoD community (outside ManTech).³² For example, the MIIs have EWD programs targeted at military personnel and veterans (e.g., LIFT and Operation Next). Further examples of these engagements include AIM and Lincoln Laboratory for laboratories to support education and training as part of the AIM Academy; America Makes with Office of Naval Research (ONR) Manufacturing Engineering Education Program (MEEP), U.S. Army, and the Joint Additive Manufacturing Working Group (JAMWG); Advanced Robotics for Manufacturing (ARM) with NSF and the Joint Robotics Organization for Building Organic Technologies (JROBOT). These are funded by federal organizations such as the ONR MEEP, NIST, NSF, and NIH, as well as state agencies (e.g., Alabama, Massachusetts, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Utah).

Most relevant to the MII EWD mission are the facilities (i.e., depots, arsenals, shipyards, ammunition plants) that are collectively referred to as the organic industrial base (OIB).³³ The U.S. Code states that it is “essential for the national defense that the Department of Defense maintain a core logistics capability that is government-owned and government-operated. . . to ensure a ready and controlled source of technical competence and resources necessary to ensure effective and timely response to a mobilization, national defense contingency situations, and other emergency requirements.” Consequently, all military services own and operate industrial facilities to maintain, repair and overhaul equipment. The OIB has played a critical role in the United States rapidly responding to the demands of wartime, especially during World War II, but more recently in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The U.S. Code also requires that not more than 50 percent of the funds made available in a fiscal year to a military department or defense agency for depot-level maintenance and repair workload may be used to contract nonfederal government personnel for the given workload. This is often referred to as the “50/50 statute” and prevents DoD from outsourcing a majority of its maintenance workload. Thus, ensuring that OIB facilities, equipment and personnel receive a sufficient peacetime workload to remain qualified and available in times of emergency. An

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³⁰ Congressional Research Service (CRS), 2020, “Department of Defense Research, Development, Test, and Evaluation (RDT&E): Appropriations Structure,” R44711, updated October 7, Washington, DC.

³¹ Congressional Research Service, 2020, “Defense Primer: RDT&E,” In Focus, updated November 25, Washington, DC.

³² Emily DeRocco and Michael Britt-Crane, OSD ManTech.

³³ CRS, 2017, “Defense Primer: Department of Defense Maintenance Depots,” In Focus, November 7 (updated December 9, 2020), Washington, DC.

OIB facility designated as a Center of Industrial and Technical Excellence (CITE) may enter into a partnership with private industry.³⁴ These CITE partnerships offer flexibility to the depots to perform subcontract work for private industry and for private companies to use facilities or equipment “not fully utilized for a military department’s own production or maintenance requirements” for either military or commercial purposes.

DoD employs over 80,000 civilian personnel at its major maintenance depots to maintain weapon systems such as aircraft, combat vehicles, and ships. The depot workforce has unique skills, and the depots need to compete with the private sector for qualified personnel. Increasing numbers of depot workers have been retiring, and the number eligible to retire is expected to increase. Because it takes 5 years or more to become proficient in some occupations, DoD need to systematically plan and prepare to hire, train and retain the workforce it needs to support its vital maintenance and repair mission.³⁵ Each of the military services has faced workforce challenges in their maintenance depots over the past several years. Congress has responded with new authorities, as part of the 2017 National Defense Authorization Act, that let the DoD sidestep the traditional hiring system to fill those vacancies. As long as DoD can show that they’re matching job-seekers to relevant qualifications, they’re allowed to bypass traditional features of the federal hiring system like competitive ranking and preference for veterans.

The current condition of facilities at a majority of these OIB facilities is poor and the age of equipment is generally past its useful life.^36,37,38 The OIB facilities are also confronted with difficulties arising from demographics associated with an aging workforce.³⁹ There is a national need for updating the depots, arsenals, shipyards and ammunition plants that make up the OIB.⁴⁰ Potentially the MIIs could play a role in bringing both advanced production technologies and new workforce

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³⁴ J. Serbu, 2019, “Fast-Track Hiring Authorities Taking Hold in DoD’s Maintenance Depots,” Federal News Network, November 26.

³⁵ U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO), 2018, “DoD Depot Workforce: Services Need to Assess the Effectiveness of Their Initiatives to Maintain Critical Skills,” Report to the Subcommittee on Readiness, Committee on Armed Service, House of Representatives, December.

³⁶ T. Lopez, 2021, “Improvements to the Organic Industrial Base Prepare Services for Future Fight,” Defense News, March 19.

³⁷ GAO, 2019, “Military Depots: Actions Needed to Improve Poor Conditions of Facilities and Equipment that Affect Maintenance Timeliness and Efficiency,” Report to the Committee on Armed Services, U.S. Senate, April.

³⁸ CRS, 2017, “Defense Primer.”

³⁹ GAO, 2018, “DoD Depot Workforce: Services Need to Assess the Effectiveness of Their Initiatives to Maintain Critical Skills,” Report to the Subcommittee on Readiness, Committee on Armed Service, House of Representatives, December.

⁴⁰ J. Serbu, 2020, “Forthcoming Army Plan Seeks to ‘Transform’ Organic Industrial Base,” Federal News Network, October 14.

skills to the DoD organic industrial base. By law the DoD industrial base must include the OIB in a significant role. Furthermore, the OIB will need to sustain legacy military platforms long after manufacture, and the MIIs can play a role on helping the OIB (e.g., reverse engineering obsolete parts). Thus, the OIB will necessarily play an important part in terms of the partnership between the DoD and its MIIs. Their role, one complementary to the major defense contractors, will be more akin to the commercial manufacturing SMEs. The OIB must be considered in establishing the necessary industrial ecosystem for each MII, and in terms of the education and training of the necessary skilled workforce for the OIB. There have been few examples to date of strong interactions between the DoD MIIs and the OIB.⁴¹ The small number of such engagements appear to rely more on chance encounters rather than any systematic efforts.

Based upon numerous interviews with MII personnel, it appears that the MIIs have not partnered very extensively with commercial SMMs, and this trend also seems to be true for the depots, arsenals, ammunition plants that make up the OIB. The committee did identify one notable exception with the ARM MII and Warner Robins Air Logistics Complex (WR ALC) through JROBOT.^42,43,44 The JROBOT group established a forum to bring together representatives from the OIB with existing research and development activities, like the MIIs and others, to identify needs and deliver solutions to affect readiness. Through JROBOT the OIB representatives developed with ARM a list of technology projects which are now in final design reviews and demonstrations should take place in a few months. ARM has been very responsive and accommodating to the specific needs at WR ALC. A second JROBOT meeting was focused on needed skills and training, which was developed with help from the EWD group at ARM. This resulted in the establishment at WR ALC of two new positions (i.e., Robotic Operator, Robotic Maintainer). There have been challenges getting these new positions recognized by DoD, but they are in progress. These ARM and WR ALC collaborations have led to tangible benefits on the order of $5 million at WR ALC over the past 2 years. This JROBOT activity may serve as a model, or “best practice,” that could be expanded, and/or replicated, to address other MII technology areas outside of robotics. Could JROBOT serve, as it did for robotics and ARM, as a model for other MIIs with deployable technologies, like additive and America Makes, and digital and MxD? The DoD already has established the Joint Additive Manufac-

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⁴¹ Greg Hudas, DoD Program Manager, Advanced Robotics for Manufacturing.

⁴² Greg Hudas, DoD Program Manager, Advanced Robotics for Manufacturing.

⁴³ Shane Groves, Chief Robotics Engineer, Warner Robbins Air Logistics Complex.

⁴⁴ Steve McKee, Naval Sea Systems Command.

turing Working Group (JAMWG) which it could build on.⁴⁵ Some initial efforts are underway between America Makes and the JAMWG. The successful JROBOT, and developing JAMWG experiences, may serve as a pilot that can be utilized to inform a more systematic approach for engaging the MIIs and the OIB. DoD joint working groups could involve one or more MIIs based on their technology area of expertise, as well as the necessary leadership from the OSD. This could build upon the existing Joint Technology Exchange Group (JTEG), operated by the National Center for Manufacturing Sciences, which aims “to improve coordination in the introduction of new or improved technology, new processes, or new equipment into Department of Defense depot maintenance activities.”⁴⁶

As was noted in Chapter 2, MEPs do have well established relationships with many SMMs in the commercial defense industrial base, as well as with the many depots, arsenals, ammunition plants, shipyards in the DoD OIB. A collaboration between the MEP centers and MIIs could be mutually beneficial in terms of technology adoption, strengthening the manufacturing ecosystem, as well as training of a skilled workforce.

Findings

Finding 3.5: The DoD OIB (i.e., depots, arsenals, shipyards, and ammunition plants) could be a significant ecosystem partner, in terms of the maintenance, repair and overhaul, for new technologies developed by the DoD-funded MIIs and will require a workforce with the requisite skills.

Finding 3.6: To date there have been few examples of meaningful and systematic engagement between the DoD MIIs and the DoD OIB. However, one successful example is the partnership between ARM and the OIB (e.g., WR ALC) through the activities of JROBOT.

Finding 3.7: The successful JROBOT example resulted from personal contacts and leadership from senior personnel in DoD, and presents a “best practice” opportunity for such partnerships to be developed more broadly and systematically. It would be desirable to establish formal engagements between the DoD MIIs and appropriate working groups via JTEG and other joint technology collaborative groups in the department.

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⁴⁵ Joint Additive Manufacturing Groups, Defense Innovation Marketplace, “Connecting Industry and the Department of Defense,” https://defenseinnovationmarketplace.dtic.mil/mantech-jamxg, accessed April 12, 2021.

⁴⁶ Joint Technology Exchange Group, “JTEG Charter,” https://jteg.ncms.org/about-jteg/jteg-charter, accessed June 22, 2021.

Finding 3.8: While the MIIs generally do not now have strong connections to either the DoD OIB or to commercial SMMs that are part of the DoD industrial base, a number of NIST MEP centers do. These MEP centers appear to have the capability to facilitate new manufacturing technology adoption from the MIIs, as well as workforce training.

Recommendations

Recommendation 3.2: OSD ManTech should work to ensure a systematic link between the DoD organic industrial base (i.e., depots, arsenals, shipyards, and ammunition plants) and the MIIs, for both new manufacturing technologies and adoption of related education and workforce development.

Recommendation 3.3: OSD and the MIIs should strengthen MII engagement with the DoD organic industrial base by identifying, encouraging, adopting and generalizing best practices (such as the Advanced Robotics for Manufacturing partnership with Warner Robins Air Logistics Complex through the Joint Robotics Organization for Building Organic Technologies) across the MIIs.

Recommendation 3.4: OSD ManTech and the MIIs should strengthen partnerships with the National Institute of Standards and Technology Manufacturing Extension Partnership centers to ensure connections to the DoD organic industrial base (as well as to the commercial small and medium-sized manufacturers that are part of the DoD industrial base) and to facilitate new manufacturing technology adoption and workforce training.

ONLINE EDUCATION AS A SCALING MECHANISM FOR WORKFORCE EDUCATION (TASK 2D)

Task 2d calls for identification of scale-up elements and mechanisms for DoD’s MIIs to collaborate on developing both online and blended learning for shared manufacturing courses, modules and materials.

Several factors are converging to require a scale-up of current efforts to train manufacturing workers. First, manufacturing has a rapidly aging workforce with 3.8 million workers over age 55. Over two million manufacturing jobs are expected to open up because of retirements in the coming decade,⁴⁷ so there will be job opportunities even if the sector itself has limited growth. Second, manufacturing work

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⁴⁷ Deloitte and the Manufacturing Institute, 2018 Skills Gap in Manufacturing Study, https://operationalsolutions.nam.org/mi-skills-gap-study-18, accessed June 16, 2021.

is upskilling, reflecting the entry of new technologies into the sector. For example, workers with high school educations or less have been in decline. By 2016 these workers made up only 43 percent of the manufacturing workforce; some higher education is increasingly required.⁴⁸ Third, the coronavirus has disrupted the workforce particularly in lower-paid services sectors. Retail and hospitality sectors have been particularly hard hit. While prior to the pandemic net job losses affected middle-wage jobs, and while both lower and higher wage jobs were growing, the pandemic had a disproportionate effect, reducing lower-wage jobs. So, job growth is now more likely to occur in higher-wage jobs.⁴⁹ This suggests there will be growing pressure on workers to upskill to find job opportunities. Manufacturing, suffered during COVID-19, for example, in its aerospace sector and from supply backlogs, including a shortfall in semiconductor production that affected the automotive and other sectors, although it was not as hard hit⁵⁰ as services sectors noted above, so could be an upskilling space in a recovery.

Fourth, while the pandemic incentivized automation at some manufacturers (discussed in chapter 5), recent studies⁵¹ have indicated that technological job displacement overall has been overstated for some sectors. While these technologies can displace some workers, they also create new tasks within existing jobs as well as new job categories. New production technologies may also be encouraged by the need to reduce supply chain vulnerabilities seen during the pandemic, creating added pressure for upskilling. Fifth, historically manufacturing predominantly employed men, but workforce demand as well as equity needs require it to open job opportunities to more women and minorities. BLS data indicates that manufacturing (all sectors) is 29.5 percent female, 79.7 percent white, 10 percent African American and 17.3 percent Hispanic. These numbers suggest that manufacturing

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⁴⁸ A.P. Carnevale, N. Ridley, B. Cheah, J. Strohl, and K.P. Campbell, 2019, Upskilling and Downsizing in American Manufacturing, Georgetown Center for Education and the Workforce, June, https://1gyhoq479ufd3yna29x7ubjn-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/Manufacturing_FR.pdf, pp. 5, 6, 18-19, and 25-26. See also, Accenture Strategy with the Manufacturing Institute, 2014, “Out of Inventory: Skills Shortage Threatens Growth for U.S. Manufacturing,” http://hdl.voced.edu.au/10707/334163.

⁴⁹ McKinsey Global Institute, 2021, Future of Work after COVID-19, February 18, https://www.mckinsey.com.

⁵⁰ S. Berger, L. Sanneman, D. Traficonte, A. Waldman-Brown, and L. Wolters, 2020, Manufacturing in America: A View from the Field, Research Brief 16, November, https://workofthefuture.mit.edu/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/2020-Research-Brief-Berger.pdf.

⁵¹ MIT, 2020, The Work of the Future: Building Better Jobs in an Age of Intelligent Machines, November, https://workofthefuture.mit.edu/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/2020-Final-Report4.pdf; Berger et al., 2020, Manufacturing in America.

is limiting its employment base;⁵² education will be one key to improving this picture. (There is further information in Chapter 5 on diversity issues presented by the pandemic.) Overall, then, it appears that there will be a significant need for upskilling in the manufacturing sector, so its system of workforce education will need to scale-up to meet job and skill needs.

New Education Technologies

Online technologies could be a way to scale-up manufacturing workforce education. The coronavirus pandemic forced much education online and online may be a continuing and growing element in education. Online will likely incorporate a host of additional technologies that can be adapted for manufacturing education. These include virtual and augmented reality (VR/AR), computer gaming and simulations, blockchain certifications, and artificial intelligence-based digital tutors. VR and AR particularly could assist with hands-on learning tasks in manufacturing workforce education. Computer gaming and simulations could increase educational engagement with the user.

For example, in advanced manufacturing, gamification along with 2D or 3D digital twin technology could provide an important new learning method for new manufacturing processes, as could VR/AR for specific machine operation skills, or in robotics operations. Blockchain could provide a way to provide detailed information on education and training skills and certifications with its validity assured and secure, accessible through the certificate-holder not just the education provider. It can provide an easy and secure way to quickly convey credentials and skills. One-on-one tutoring has long been understood as optimal education because it can be so responsive to the learner. While more technology advances are needed, artificial intelligence-assisted digital tutors could emerge in coming years to assist in personalizing both education and training. With these new technologies come new education modes. For example, bootcamps—short, intense, in-person education experiences that range from a few days to a few weeks—are increasingly being coupled with online for hands-on, experiential education. All of these technologies and approaches appear particularly useful in manufacturing workforce education.

How do these new technologies translate into manufacturing needs? Online education at large scale is a relatively new phenomenon, dating from the emergence

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⁵² Bureau of Labor Statistics, “Labor Force Statistics from the Current Population Survey: Household Data: Annual Averages: 18. Employed Persons by Detailed Industry, Sex, Race, and Hispanic or Latino Ethnicity,” https://www.bls.gov/cps/cpsaat18.htm.

of MOOCs (massive open online courses) in 2012.⁵³ There is only limited online education to date focused on manufacturing skills, such as from online education companies like Thors, Tooling U, and 180 skills, as discussed below. Because there has been only a limited online manufacturing education focus, the lessons from these relatively new efforts are few. There is no evaluative literature on online manufacturing education yet, but there is an emerging literature on online education (and its related technologies) more generally. The challenge, then, for this Task 2d requires taking the new online learning lessons that are being learned now as online education develops at education institutions, and summarizing them so they can be applied to manufacturing education content. So, the committee tried to translate here the major lessons—and these are both new and quite current—from the relatively small number of experts who are involved in these online learning lessons, into the manufacturing education context. This arguably is an important task because, as noted, there is a particular need for online education to play a role in scaling up advanced manufacturing education.

The Problem with Applying Videoconferencing to Education

As noted, the COVID-19 pandemic made online education widespread, but arguably it was applied poorly. For example, college and university education would have come to a halt for a year and many higher education institutions would have failed, without online programs. But moving classes onto videoconference sites such as Zoom, Webex or other online live video platforms did not take advantage of the potential of online education. What has been observed with lectures on these platforms was more “remote” education than quality online education. There is a distinction between the two. Good online education, for example, builds in automatic assessment, a more powerful learning step from what learners can obtain on videoconferencing sites, which is only live video without learning interventions. Video conferencing platform lectures may represent the worst of both worlds: they have neither the interfacing that occurs in person nor the production and learning features that can be incorporated into asynchronous pre-recorded videos. While lectures on these platforms enabled schools to remain open, too few faculty had been trained on how best to use the technology, so much of it was suboptimal. If online education is going to scale and take advantage of the medium’s potential, new pedagogical approaches are required.

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⁵³ L. Pappano, 2012, “The Year of the MOOC,” New York Times, November 2, https://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/04/education/edlife/massive-open-online-courses-are-multiplying-at-a-rapid-pace.html; T. Lewin, 2013, “Universities Abroad Join Partnerships on the Web,” New York Times, February 20, https://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/21/education/universities-abroad-join-mooc-course-projects.html.

There is certainly a role for videoconferencing in manufacturing education—it can provide real time manufacturing education task supervision, for example. But it will not be optimal for manufacturing education classroom presentations, as suggested above. Asynchronous videos, with the many learning intervention features it can offer as discussed below, will provide a richer and more productive approach.

New Technology Enables New Pedagogy

Insights about how the human brain gathers and stores information, and develops facility with new material, have been accumulating in fields of cognitive psychology, neuroscience and education, although they have had limited adoption to date in both education and workforce training. Online and related new technologies offer a new opportunity to incorporate these lessons. A series of examples of this pedagogy are set out below.⁵⁴

• Ten-minute chunks—People tend to learn in about 10-minute chunks. This appears to be related to the way one form short-term memories in the brain. If that time is exceeded, “mind-wandering” sets in. Therefore, lectures or presentations need to be extremely short to be effective and for students to retain content. Courses, then, could use ten minutes of lecture segment, switch to another learning mode (for example, an interactive group discussion, a demonstration or an assessment), then return to a ten-minute lecture segment, and continue with that pattern.
• Desirable difficulties—Studies show that effortful approaches, in which learners struggle somewhat to grasp the material, lead to better, more durable learning. When students simply read easily followed material and don’t have to grapple with it and apply it, the content is not retained. What have been called “desirable difficulties” (or “cognitive interference” by some) leads to better learning by increasing processing of the material. Approaches such as problem solving that apply these findings can be readily built into online courses.
• Frequent, low-stakes testing—Learners who are tested frequently about material they have been studying are able to retrieve the material more readily. This is much more successful in inducing learning than a high-stakes final exam. The testing cues cannot be too easy—struggling somewhat for the right answers helps. And the testing could be spaced, allowing what is called spaced repetition so that the learner has to focus on and relearn the

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⁵⁴ Drawn from Bonvillian and Sarma, Workforce Education, pp. 140-145, and S. Sarma and L. Yoquinto, 2020, Grasp: The Science Transforming How We Learn, New York: Doubleday. These works summarize learning science literature relevant to online education.

• material just before she or he forgets it. Frequent testing can be imbedded into online courses.
• Interleaved content—While current learning is generally divided into blocks of related topics, learning is often better when it is interleaved, with different topics flowing one after another. This increases cognitive interference, making learning a little more difficult, therefore improving retention. Interleaved content can also be built into online materials
• Assessment and feedback loops—Assessment followed by feedback on performance also plays a role in the learning process, alerting students to both their progress and areas where they need more focus.

All of these and numerous other lessons from learning science can be readily built into online education, making it much more interactive and so enhancing its ability to promote learning. And all these learning lessons have direct application in improving workforce education, which can benefit from the ability of online to embed them.

Workforce education also needs to engage both “mind and hand.” It needs to be “hands on” in significant part, taking advantage of tactile and active learning. This means it would be required to be “blended,” combining in-person education and equipment training with quality online material that reflects learning science lessons, as discussed more below. And new technologies such as VR/AR and computer gaming features within online offerings can help with equipment training and building troubleshooting skills. There are also new online prototyping programs and online coaching features that can also be called on to enhance learning.

These online capabilities represent a new education pedagogy in themselves, but they also enable a new pedagogy in the face-to-face classroom. With quality features that are more interactive, as described above, students can obtain much of a course’s content online. This allows the classroom to fundamentally change—to be “flipped.” Teachers can be more mentors and guides, helping students become more makers or doers. Moving content online opens up time for site visits and field trips and more experiential learning. The classroom becomes a space less for listening—that can go online—and more for experiences, discussion, presentations, disputation and explanation. It becomes a coaching and encouragement space, where misunderstandings can be analyzed and patterns of learning understood and acted on. This combination of online and in-person is blended learning—it is a significant new opportunity in education, particularly in workforce education.

The COVID-19 pandemic made online widespread, but arguably it is important to learn the lessons of doing online right not the videoconferencing lessons of doing online wrong. Examples like Khan Academy⁵⁵ show that it is possible to flip

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⁵⁵ See the Khan Academy website at https://www.khanacademy.org, accessed July 29, 2021.

the classroom and embrace new pedagogy. And, as noted, blended is best, letting online do what it does best in conveying content, and classroom what it can do best, in mentoring and applications. Bootcamps are a mode that can help move from the constraints of online to the living world of face-to-face—they can be a kind in-person hack-a-thon. With complementary online materials, a class setting has the potential to become a hands-on studio or a workshop or discussion opportunity. When OSD ManTech encourages its MII’s to develop online workforce programs in advanced manufacturing, it could ensure that these learning science lessons are being followed.

All of these and numerous other lessons from learning science can be readily built into online education, making it much more interactive and so enhancing its ability to promote learning. And all these learning lessons have direct application in improving manufacturing workforce education, which can benefit from the ability of online to embed them.

Manufacturing workforce education also needs to engage both “mind and hand.” It needs to be “hands on” in significant part, taking advantage of tactile and active learning. This means it would be required to be “blended,” combining in-person education and equipment training with quality online material that reflects learning science lessons, as discussed more below. And new technologies such as VR/AR and computer gaming features within online offerings can help with equipment training and building troubleshooting skills for manufacturing. There are also new online prototyping programs and online coaching features that can also be called on to enhance learning.

These online capabilities represent a new education pedagogy in themselves, but they also enable a new pedagogy in face-to-face setting. With quality features that are more interactive, as described above, students can obtain much of a course’s content online. This allows the classroom to fundamentally change—to be “flipped.” Teachers can be more mentors and guides, helping students become more makers or doers. Moving content online opens up time for site visits and field trips and more experiential learning. The classroom becomes a space less for listening—that can go online—and more for experiences, discussion, presentations, disputation and explanation. It becomes a coaching and encouragement space, where misunderstandings can be analyzed and patterns of learning understood and acted on. This combination of online and in-person is blended learning—it is a significant new opportunity in education, including in manufacturing workforce education. Manufacturing will of necessity be blended—there will need to be hands on instructors to impart manufacturing skills. But the lessons of blended learning mean that it can be effectively combined and interlaced with online for an optimal combination that provides the best of both worlds. A significant amount of manufacturing content learning can be shifted online enabling scaling, which will save instructor

time for the physical experiential learning and hands on work than can’t yet be replicated online.

The COVID-19 pandemic made online education widespread, but arguably it was applied poorly using software meant more for Business-to-Business conferences, not teacher-student learning. Examples like Khan Academy⁵⁶ show that it is possible to flip the classroom and embrace new pedagogy. And, as noted, blended is best, letting online do what it does best in conveying content, and classroom what it can do best, in mentoring and applications. This is definitely the case with manufacturing education, as noted above—the instructor can be reserved for the hands-on side, with broader content learning, accompanied by continuous assessment and feedback loops to spur retention, moving online. Bootcamps are another delivery model that can help move from the constraints of online to the living world of face-to-face—they can be a kind in-person hack-a-thon This, too, could be a model for manufacturing education. For example, online material—and again, it needs to be rich, interactive material—could be offered during the week with weekend or periodic in-person boot camps. With complementary online materials, a class-type setting has the potential to become a hands-on manufacturing workshop opportunity. When OSD ManTech encourages its MII’s to develop online workforce programs in advanced manufacturing, it could ensure that these learning science lessons are being followed.

Online Could Play a Role in Scaling-up Manufacturing Workforce Training

To summarize and expand on points made above, manufacturing workforce education could be a particular beneficiary of advances in online education and the new technologies that can accompany it. Workers training in manufacturing skills are often already employed—online can give them flexible timing to fit training into work and life schedules, a major online advantage. This flexible scheduling is a particular advantage for incumbent workers and their employers. Quality online education, including manufacturing workforce education, as discussed above, can also be designed to incorporate lessons from learning science, such as continuous assessment and feedback loop or ten-minute chunks, which can enhance learning. Manufacturing workforce education can move online for absorbing basic content as well as problem solving, while in a blended learning approach, the in-person component can be more heavily hands-on, experiential and mentoring, all key to good workforce education. Older workers are often unfamiliar with online, although the massive experience of online work and schooling during the pandemic has helped reduce this barrier. But such older workers may need to start

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⁵⁶ See the Khan Academy website at https://www.khanacademy.org, accessed July 29, 2021.

with in-person education first and gradually shift to more online. In summary, a blended learning approach is the better approach, in which online instruction and in-person instruction do in combination what each does best. But moving much content education online can help in supplementing and managing existing education resources, and enabling many more to be reached.

As noted at the outset of this section, overall demand for skilled manufacturing workers has been growing in recent years with over 2 million manufacturing jobs expected to open up in the next decade due to the aging manufacturing workforce. While1.4 million manufacturing workers were laid off during the early part of the pandemic in 2020 compared to 2019 levels, almost a million manufacturing jobs had been recouped by June 2021.⁵⁷ Some manufacturing sectors were hard-hit, including through semiconductor shortages that backed up a number of production lines. Overall, however, manufacturing was in a better position for recovery than some services sectors, it helped keep the economy functioning during the pandemic, and could play a constructive role in assisting recovery, which would expand manufacturing job demand in the shorter as well as longer term.

Advanced manufacturing faces a major education challenge: there is a skills gap. As discussed at the outset of this subchapter, the existing manufacturing education system is not producing the number of manufacturing workers with the skills that will be required. So, a scale-up of manufacturing workforce education is needed. Second, existing and new entrant manufacturing workers require upskilling as new technologies and processes enter the sector to create advanced manufacturing. Because the United States is not now educating for many of these new skills, a new advanced manufacturing curriculum needs to be introduced—at scale. There is now both a manufacturing workforce gap and a manufacturing skill gap.

Online workforce education could assist in meeting these scale and new content issues. While up-front costs of developing a quality online workforce program are much higher than for an education institution to add a new class, it can, of course, reach far larger numbers of students because of the way online scales through internet and broadband. And there is a potential societal gain. Manufacturing is a particularly important sector because it is a significantly higher job multiplier than other sectors and is better paying than other jobs that don’t necessarily require a college education. The average hourly manufacturing wage as of March 2021 was $29.15 while workers in leisure and hospitality, another field that has usually not required college education, earned on average $17.67.⁵⁸

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⁵⁷ See “Manufacturing” in Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2021, “Current Employment Statistics,” June, https://www.bls.gov/web/empsit/ceshighlights.pdf.

⁵⁸ See the March 2021 data from FRED for “Average Hourly Earnings of All Employees, Manufacturing” and “Average Hourly Earnings of All Employees, Leisure and Hospitality” at https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/CES7000000003, both accessed June 16, 2021.

Getting Online to Scale for Manufacturing Workforce Education

If online has potential value in meeting manufacturing workforce needs, how does it reach the needed scale?

Currently, there is a range of online manufacturing education providers. MII’s of course, are not the only sources for developing online content for advanced manufacturing, the private sector is assisting on a number of gaps. There are companies producing advanced manufacturing technologies, such as Fanuc (robotics), Siemens (Industry 4.0), and Rockwell Automation (process controls), that offer online education programs as part of supporting their customers. There are also companies offering online education in manufacturing skills typically used by companies, for training their employees. These firms include, as noted at the outset, Tooling U, 180 Skills, and Thors. The non-profit Manufacturing Skills Standards Council (MSSC) also offers online manufacturing course materials.⁵⁹ And, for example, Google has partnered with the education platform firm Coursera to offer certificates in machine learning and artificial intelligence. So, private sector training will be available in some emerging fields, with more developing as technologies evolve. Where there is online material available, a role for MIIs can be to curate and recommend education material rather than create it, such as ARM is attempting now in robotics through its “national robotics endorsement” plan.⁶⁰

Community colleges are increasing users of online education materials but typically lack the resources to develop their own quality online courses. Community colleges are often reluctant to adopt course material from particular equipment producers because it trains for only one brand of equipment. They also lack the resources to pay for putting their students into courses developed by for-profit companies. Universities have developed significant numbers of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC) courses accessible online. However, these focus on college and professional education, not technician-level education. And manufacturing MOOC course offerings remain quite limited at professional levels. Therefore, there are significant gaps in the ability of the existing online education system to reach the scale to meet the need.

There are other underlying problems, as well. Some advanced manufacturing technologies and processes are more deployable, that is closer-in to adoption and starting to enter factories, including digital production technologies, robotics and additive manufacturing. Overall data on U.S. productivity and on capital plant and equipment investment show that they are at historically low levels, suggesting that there is only gradual adoption of advanced manufacturing and the efficien-

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⁵⁹ Manufacturing Skills Standards Council, “Online E-Learning Courses,” https://www.msscusa.org/online-e-learning-courses/.

⁶⁰ See the Advanced Robotics for Manufacturing (ARM) Institute’s national robotics endorsement plan at https://www.roboticscareer.org.

cies it can enable. Adoption is primarily by larger firms; smaller manufacturing firms that make up their supply chains tend to be more thinly capitalized and so are slow adopters.⁶¹ The lack of a workforce trained for these new technologies further exacerbates adoption. While there is some entry of some new, more deployable manufacturing technologies, it has been limited at many firms. Aside from these deployable advanced manufacturing technologies, there are other new advanced manufacturing technologies that are still in earlier development stages, such as photonics, biofabrication, power electronics, advanced materials, flexible electronics, or smart fibers. These are emerging, further-out from adoption and not being adopted at scale. For-profit online companies and equipment providers can only train for existing job markets and equipment, and community colleges can only teach a subject if they can fill classrooms for it. The education system, both for-profit or non-profit, is simply not organized to create online or other materials for these emerging manufacturing technologies. Yet curricula at the engineering and skilled technician levels are still required for these technologies for them to transition into workplaces.

To summarize, the existing system has not been training at adequate scale to implement the deployable advanced manufacturing technologies, to small and large firms, and hasn’t developed education programs for the emerging and further-out technologies. Current approaches are antiquated do not appear sufficient to get the United States to move toward creating a workforce ready for advanced manufacturing technologies. These problems suggest a system failure in U.S. manufacturing which did not recognize or adequately plan for advanced manufacturing. Online materials could provide a significant boost getting to the scale needed in educating for these new technologies but are not being developing at an adequate pace. New content is required to cover advanced manufacturing, and this will require teaching new equipment, improved broadband technology, and instructors trained in these new technologies

Role for the Manufacturing Innovation Institutes; Online

Could the manufacturing innovation institutes help jump-start the online workforce education needed for advanced manufacturing at scale?

Along with “Advancing Research and Technology” and “Establishing Manufacturing Ecosystems, “Securing Human Capital” is listed by DoD as a chartering principle for its manufacturing innovation institutes in order to “Develop manufacturing-specific education and workforce development (EWD) resources

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⁶¹ B. Armstrong, 2021, “A Firm-Level Study of Workforce Issues at U.S. Manufacturers,” MIT Work of the Future Working Paper 12-2021, January, https://workofthefuture.mit.edu/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/2021-Working-Paper-Armstrong.pdf.

to ensure innovative technology is manufacturable.”⁶² Such a jump-starting role, then, appears consistent with the MII mission.

OSD ManTech, which oversees the MII, has seen the need for online education materials and has been encouraging MIIs in their development. It has encouraged each MII to identify and develop the competencies as well as the KSA (knowledge, skills and awareness) required for its technology area. These, in turn, can be translated into course materials, including online materials

For example, AIM Academy, the workforce education arm of the AIM Photonics manufacturing institute has developed a series of programs to enable photonics adoption for both engineers and technicians. AIM Academy. Photonics is an emerging technology, only being implemented gradually, so there simply isn’t education in photonics at engineering and technician levels. This led AIM Academy to make online education a core part of its workforce education strategy. AIM,

• Has launched one online course on an edX platform for online courses to education institutions, companies, and individual students, on photonics integrated circuits and photonics fabrication and design, and it has nine more online photonics courses in development.
• Is creating a virtual lab for community college, college and graduate students in a computer gaming-based setting for these students to develop both integrated photonic circuits and systems, to support knowledge of both design and manufacturing.
• Has a pilot photonics technician training certificate programs at two Massachusetts colleges and has developed the supporting 15-month technician-level curriculum, with a certification as well as college credit, which incorporate the online materials.
• Has developed three downloadable teaching packages of curricula and supporting materials, including slides, testing materials and related questions, in the areas of integrated silicon photonics, photonic materials and photonic devices for use by educational institutions and companies.
• Is preparing a series of VR modules for integration into photonics training programs.
• Has created a series of Ted-Ed videos on integrated photonics and its manufacturing infrastructure to introduce the field of photonics to those interested in pursuing it.
• Has eleven university partners and four community college-engaged partners on its various projects, as well as numerous participating companies.

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⁶² DoD Manufacturing Innovation Institute (MII) chartering principles, MII Strategy and Assessment Document.

• Is developing a workforce education roadmap which includes company hiring projections for photonics technicians and engineers, which integrates its online and blended education materials.

Other manufacturing institutes are also developing online education programs, often in the context of in-person programs. For example, LIFT, the lightweight materials MII, has developed IGNITE, an advanced manufacturing curriculum for high school students, available online, which it partnered on with MxD and America Makes (the digital production and additive MIIs), and with Amatrol (a training systems and equipment company).⁶³ LIFT also led creation of Operation Next, a self-paced, manufacturing-focused training and credentialing program that blends hands-on with virtual learning, for veterans and military personnel who want to train for manufacturing careers.⁶⁴ NextFlex, the flexible electronics MII, has developed its FlexFactor high school introductory project-based course for manufacturing skills which has reached over 20 areas and thousands of students, and is now offered online as well as in person.⁶⁵ America Makes has developed some 30 online classes at high school and incumbent worker levels, as well as middle school micro-learning modules and virtual instructor-led training, high school teacher and counselor training, and middle school teacher and counselor training in additive manufacturing. It recently announced, for example, its Ohio Secondary Education Additive Manufacturing Training Network, with pilots in in 10 high schools.⁶⁶ MxD has a cybersecurity for manufacturing operational technology curriculum with the University of Maryland Baltimore Campus, and a digital manufacturing and design MOOC course with SUNY-Buffalo. ARM has a series of online efforts including a robotics apprenticeship toolkit that includes access to online courses, and other apprenticeship and training programs that include online elements.⁶⁷ This is only a partial listing of MII online efforts.

OSD ManTech has seen the utility of online education for its MIIs and is working on an important enabler. It is supporting the development of a platform through Open edX that can include all of the online materials that MIIs develop in their different advanced manufacturing technology areas. edX is a major MOOC platform where over 160 universities offer online courses that reach all geographic

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⁶³ LIFT, 2018, “IGNITE: Mastering Manufacturing,” brochure, http://lift.technology/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/Ignite-Brochure-9.25.18.pdf.

⁶⁴ Operation Next, LIFT, https://www.opnextjobs.com, accessed June 16, 2021.

⁶⁵ Operation Next, NextFlex, FlexFactor, https://www.opnextjobs.com, accessed June 16, 2021.

⁶⁶ America Makes, 2021, “America Makes Announces the Ohio Secondary Education Additive Manufacturing Training Network to Address State’s Skilled Worker Shortage,” June 29, https://www.americamakes.us/ohio-secondary-education-am-training-network.

⁶⁷ Advanced Robotics for Manufacturing, Robotics Career, https://www.roboticscareer.org, accessed June 16, 2021.

regions through broadband;⁶⁸ While edX is moving to for-profit status, Open edX will remain an independent, non-profit platform. Open edX allows institutions to create their own platform within the larger platform edX maintains, for developing and collecting their own online materials⁶⁹—this is what ManTech is creating. In effect, this new ManTech platform will become a library for advanced manufacturing education materials that can be organized by field and competencies, with materials all levels, from background and introductory to technician training, to engineering education. It can be an education resource for MIIs, for companies, for community colleges and universities, as well as for DoD’s own manufacturing operations at depots, at shipyards and at defense contractors. The Government Accountability Office has noted serious skill training problems at service depots, arsenals and shipyards that are delaying the availability of military equipment and platforms—online education materials available on the Open edX platform could be applied to help remedy this training scale-up problem.⁷⁰ In effect, ManTech has begun a process of creating an online manufacturing academy that can serve a wide range of defense production needs. Online education materials from other DoD sources apart from ManTech could also find a home on ManTech’s new platform, as well.

Virtual and Augmented Reality

In the future, VR and AR can be important tools for enabling online education to incorporate hands-on, learning-by-doing features. The military services are now developing VR and AR for training for service personnel at significant scale, well ahead of most civilian firms.⁷¹ The Navy, for example, is increasing using immersive VR and AR simulations as its core training tool. Its Multiple Reconfigurable Training System (MRTS), developed for aviation training at the Training Systems Division in Orlando,⁷² is now used at the other major Navy schools, including the submarine school at Groton, Connecticut, and the aviation mechanics school in Pensacola, Florida. The Navy made a deliberate choice to build MRTS on commer-

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⁶⁸ edX, “About,” https://www.edx.org/about-us, accessed June 16, 2021.

⁶⁹ Open edX, https://open.edx.org, accessed June 16, 2021.

⁷⁰ GAO, 2018, “DOD Depot Workforce, Services Need to Assess the Effectiveness of Their Initiatives to Maintain Critical Skills,” December, https://www.gao.gov/assets/gao-19-51.pdf.

⁷¹ NSF programs in STEM Education Distributed Learning and at its iCorps program, see NSF, “National STEM Education Distributed Learning (NSDL),” published February 25, 2010, https://www.nsf.gov/funding/pgm_summ.jsp?pims_id=5487&org=NSF, and NSF, “I-Corps: Virtual Reality Technology for Teacher-Driven Development of Classroom-Based Assessment,” Award Abstract # 2011789, https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2011789&HistoricalAwards=false.

⁷² Naval Air Warfare Center Training Systems Division, Orlando, FL, https://www.navair.navy.mil/nawctsd/, discussed in Bonvillian and Sarma, 2021, Workforce Education, pp. 4-6.

cially available technology to save costs, enable rapid scale-up, and avoid depending on a single contractor. MRTS uses a high-end gaming computer with a widely available gaming platform. With commercially available flat screens VR/AR sets, which are coming down significantly in price. Developing the software, of course, costs far more than the equipment, but the software is a one-time cost and can be spread over thousands of training sessions. Since VR can also be operated on laptops, the training is moving from these education centers to the Navy’s operations onboard ships and at air bases where it provides on-the-job training and immediate guidance for operating the actual equipment. The Navy has made preliminary comparisons, finding that its VR-based training is close to interchangeable with training on actual equipment and far better than classroom-based education. The other services have also created online and VR/AR development centers in Orlando, taking advantage of the University of Central Florida’s strong expertise in computer simulation development, and a strong commercial gaming sector located in the region.

While the Navy’s efforts are highlighted above as an example, the other services have developed similar capabilities. The services have considerable prowess in using online simulations in task training; for example, Navy has developed simulations of the workings of a hydraulic system, of carrier deck aircraft launch, and of equipment on a Virginia-class submarine, and the Army has simulations for tank maintenance. These exhibit a strong capability that could transfer over to manufacturing education since manufacturing often involves physical processes that lend themselves to visual, interactive simulations that aid learning. It is important to emphasize that the VR simulations for maintenance and repair of particular kinds of military equipment are not the same as manufacturing skills—new simulation material would have to be developed, of course, in areas like robotics, additive manufacturing and digital production. That would entail finding new sets of instructors and content developers, and exploring new fields outside of the training areas where the services now work. So, entirely new kinds of material will have to be developed related to manufacturing skills. But DoD service training capabilities in developing VR and simulations, and general knowledge about how simulations could be applied to training in various fields, create an opportunity for these DoD service training centers to play a role in manufacturing education.

While the military services have not been applying their growing VR or AR education capabilities for advanced manufacturing workforce education that could meet needs at depots, shipyards, arsenals or at defense contractors, this significant development expertise could be applied. However, military requirements would have to be developed for this manufacturing online education, and funds would have to be budgeted to support meeting these new manufacturing education requirements. Could this be justified? As discussed in the subchapter below, there are some 88,000 manufacturing employees at DoD’s depots, shipyards and arsenals, and these facilities appear seriously behind in adopting advanced manufacturing

approaches, as noted above. This problem creates efficiency, performance and productivity issues for DoD that translate into significant costs. Meeting this sizable need for DoD’s own industrial base could justify the development of advanced manufacturing skill training requirements and corresponding funding that could engage the service training centers noted above. DoD’s interest in doing this is further multiplied when the needs of its defense contractor manufacturing base, particularly of the small and mid-sized firms that make up much of it, are considered. America’s small and midsized manufacturers have been seriously lagging in productivity advances and in adopting advanced manufacturing technologies,⁷³ yet those technologies simply will not be implemented unless there is a workforce trained on those technologies. This further justifies requirements and funding to apply service training center VR/AR and simulation expertise to DoD manufacturing workforce needs. OSD ManTech could consider playing an intermediary role, helping to consider these needs at the service training centers and bringing in expertise of particular MIIs to advise in developing VR/AR and simulation-related content.

To summarize this subchapter, given the challenges of educating the manufacturing workforce so it is prepared to implement advanced manufacturing technologies and processes, online education appears to be an important scaling tool. Because of expected increased demand for manufacturing workers due to retirements from the current aging manufacturing workforce and because of increasing demand for higher-skilled employees, indicate the need for new approaches. The ability to scale online education’s more rapidly than classroom education while producing potentially better outcomes when appropriate pedagogical approaches are incorporated, make online an important option. The defense industrial base and contractor workforces particularly could benefit from the scaling opportunities available from online and blended learning.

If it is asynchronous, and developed to incorporate emerging lessons from learning science fields, online education may prove to be an important enabler for workforce education. Hands-on and learning-by-doing features potentially available through virtual and augmented reality technologies could further enhance its utility. Recognizing these possibilities, OSD ManTech has encouraged DoD sponsored MIIs to develop online materials as a way to meet their workforce education missions, and a number of MIIs have started to do so. ManTech is also in the process of developing an Open edX site as a platform to host online education materials for the MIIs as well as for other DoD agencies. VR and AR development expertise at military services’ training centers also presents a collaboration opportunity for ManTech and MIIs to apply these new technologies to manufacturing

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⁷³ B. Armstrong, 2021, National Manufacturing Workforce Plan, report for OSD ManTech, Initiative for Knowledge, Innovation and Manufacturing, MIT, Cambridge, MA, January.

skills. Given manufacturing workforce skill needs and because of its importance as a scaling mechanism, DoD could continue to back the initiatives that ManTech and the MIIs have begun.

Findings

Finding 3.9: Expected increased demand for skilled manufacturing workers due to retirements from the current aging manufacturing workforce and increasing demand for higher-skills in the manufacturing workforce, indicate the need for new approaches to workforce education.

Finding 3.10: Given these needs for additional skilled employees, and for new advanced manufacturing skills in the existing workforce, online education could provide an important tool for scaling manufacturing workforce education.

Finding 3.11: Online education will not displace face-to-face learning which will continue to be key to hands-on-learning and learning-by-doing in manufacturing, but it can be an important complement, with much content shifted online. As new technologies, like VR/AR, computing, and gaming and simulations develop, they can be imbedded into online education and improve its ability to tackle hands-on learning.

Finding 3.12: Manufacturing Innovation Institutes are already engaged in developing online education materials in their respective technology areas, and OSD ManTech is creating a platform to collect, house and distribute these materials. Collaborations between ManTech and the military services’ VR/AR training simulation development programs also present opportunities to develop these simulations for advanced manufacturing training that could benefit DoD’s industrial base and contractor workforces.

Recommendation

Recommendation 3.5: Given manufacturing workforce needs and because of their importance as a scaling mechanism, OSD ManTech should continue to encourage, support, and expand the initiatives for online and blended workforce education by manufacturing institutes. Online education and related blended learning should become a significant focus of institute education and workforce development efforts, including their efforts with their regional manufacturing ecosystems, because of its potential to scale up skills training in their advanced manufacturing fields. This should include support by OSD ManTech for institute use of new educational technologies such as computer gaming, simulations,

blockchain certifications, virtual and augmented reality (VR/AR), and digital tutors; incorporation by institutes of online materials of pedagogies that reflect learning science advances; collaborations between ManTech and military services’ VR/AR training simulation development programs; expanded use by institutes and other DoD agencies of the Open edX platform for access to online education materials; and other approaches noted in this discussion.

CREDENTIALS AND CERTIFICATIONS (TASK 2E)

Task 2e requested a review of the role MII EWD programs could play in supporting and developing industry-recognized credentials in a series of advanced manufacturing technologies. The committee examined the need for standards for transportable certificates in MIIs’ advanced manufacturing fields of robotics, additive manufacturing, advanced lightweight metals, the connected smart factory, and flexible hybrid electronics, with primary interest in the skilled technical workforce and secondary interest in the engineering and scientist workforce. Recently established certification programs for analogous technologies have been reviewed and the process and timeline taken to build consensus across stakeholders on standards, competencies, testing process, and method to maintain the certification’s currency have been studied.

Credentials typically include certifications, certificates, degrees, and licenses.⁷⁴ To define terms, a credential or certificate is generally offered by an education or a training institution for skills and competencies. A certification attempts to validate a credential or certificate, often by a third party independent of the credential provider (which often is an industry) that confirms or accredits a demonstrated competency. A license is offered through a government-approved process that has legal status and enables a person to practice in the licensed field. Task 2e is focused on credentials and certificates, and the certifications behind them, not licenses. The committee particularly focuses here on industry-approved and industry-recognized credentials, which in turn, can be imbedded into certifications and degrees offered by education institutions. Such credentialing, accompanied by transportable certifications, can be an effective means to help close the national manufacturing talent gaps if managed well and broadly accepted by the industry.⁷⁵ Portability and modularity of certifications in advanced manufacturing allow coordinated

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⁷⁴ WorkCred and Manufacturing Extension Partnership, 2018, Examining the Quality, Market Value, and Effectiveness of Manufacturing Credentials in the United States, https://www.workcred.org/Documents/NIST-MEP-Report.pdfhttps://www.workcred.org/Documents/NIST-MEP-Report.pdf.

⁷⁵ W.B. Bonvillian and S.E. Sarma, 2021, “America Needs a New Workforce Education System,” Issues in Science and Engineering, March 9.

actions of credentialing ecosystem organizations that grow the talent pipeline.⁷⁶ Essential coordinated actions are needed to address recruitment, training, testing of competency, placement of the trainees, certification and periodic re-certification, courseware, standards, audit and accreditation, best practices, and tracking long-term impacts closing gaps in the manufacturing workforce. The combination of an industry credential and an academic certificate enables holders to have a double option⁷⁷: both academic and industry recognition. The combination further improves the opportunities for transportable credentials that can be recognized in different regions and potentially nationwide.

The US has a plethora of credentials, with some achieving recognition in some regions but not in others. Too many small and mid-sized manufacturers either do not understand or use them or they accord them only partial recognition. The lack of recognized credentials balkanizes manufacturing workforce education, limiting adoption of commonly understood and accepted best education practices. This also means that the U.S. manufacturing labor market lacks a key feature for efficient markets: a common information system, based on a common “currency” built around credentials.

Any viable and sustainable path forward will need to incorporate the essential functions of certification and accreditation—and result in two key outcomes, education, and training standards, to satisfy current and emerging competencies, and yield portable credentials for individuals. An outside, non-profit organization, independent from the company or companies developing the credential, could undertake the actual testing and assessment of students or workers seeking the credential. MIIs are encouraged to coordinate with NIST as well as major standards development organizations, such as the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), American National Standards Institute (ANSI), ASTM, ASME, and SAE in developing a systematic approach to credentialing in key advanced manufacturing fields, based on its experience.

Assessments could include not only written (or online) tests, but actual hands-on assessment for skills, according to best industry credential practices. Credentials could periodically be revised and updated with industry participation in the process, and best practices indicate that credential holders do benefit from being periodically tested for proficiency, with a process for revocation of credentials.

In recognition of the potential of industry-recognized credentials and certifications in closing the national manufacturing talent gaps, the DoD ManTech EWD lead-

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⁷⁶ Executive Office of the President, 2012, Report to the President on Capturing Domestic Competitive Advantage in Advanced Manufacturing, President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, https://www.manufacturing.gov/sites/default/files/2018-01/pcast_amp_steering_committee_report_final_july_27_2012.pdf.

⁷⁷ Bonvillian and Sarma, 2021, “America Needs a New Workforce Education System.”

ership team has examined a regional network approach for MIIs to grow and expand portable credentials in their technology areas.⁷⁸ Many MIIs, such as AFFOA, AIM, America Makes, ARM, LIFT, and MxD started credentialing programs. As MIIs continue to roll new programs, there would also seem to be a need for a tracking system that ManTech might encourage, to demonstrate the value, or Return on Investment (ROI), of credentialing to both industry and individual employees.

Successful credentialing or certification programs require a critical mass of national recognition and acceptance, and adoption by industry.⁷⁹ Currently, industry participation and adoption of portable credentials is spotty. Credentialing is simply not widely used in industry in hiring and promotion. How could that change? What role can the MIIs take in creating a critical mass of broad recognition and acceptance by industry in their advanced manufacturing technologies?

The institutes represent consortia of manufacturers, both small and large, education institutions, and states, so potentially bring together the mix of actors that need to be involved in credential development. However, there will likely not be a uniform role for all MIIs. In general, the MIIs appear to take on the role of serving as EWD bridges to assist companies in transitioning from conventional manufacturing to Industry 4.0 (digital transformation) and other elements of advanced manufacturing. Some institutes are addressing deployable technologies, ready for transition, that are starting to be more widely adopted into workplaces, such as robotics, additive manufacturing, and digital production, while others have emerging technologies which will have a longer timeline to enter workplaces widely, such as photonics, flexible electronics, and biofabrication. This difference influences the role a particular MII might have in developing industry credentials. The MIIs are undertaking credentialing initiative, they should work in concert with NIST and other ISOs to avoid redundancy and confusions.

For deployable technologies, credentials are often already in place or being developed with industry participation, so it may be duplicative for an MII to develop yet another set. However, for emerging technologies, credentials for new skills likely have not been developed. Since a best practice for MIIs, as noted in the committee’s interim report, has been to develop competencies and KSA (knowledge, skills, and abilities) required in their technical fields, MIIs could have the tools and the ability, working with their industry members, to develop the new credentials needed to help advance and create a skilled workforce in their emerging fields. They can also work with other stakeholders in developing these new credentials. While it may be tempting for MIIs to try to develop revenue streams around such credentialing,

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⁷⁸ Michael Britt-Crane, OUSD(R&E) Manufacturing Technologies (ManTech), 2020, “National Manufacturing Workforce Strategic Framework to Maintain National Security and Economic Prosperity.”

⁷⁹ Bonvillian and Sarma, 2021, “America Needs a New Workforce Education System.”

the committee’s discussions with experts suggest it may be advisable for MIIs to refrain from doing this while the new credential is developing acceptance—fees can be major barriers to credential acceptance, particularly for new credentials.

But what about the role of the institutes with deployable technologies for which there already credentials defined? Using their work on competencies and KSA in their fields, they could play a role in evaluating current credentials and suggesting improvements to those offering them. ARM, the robotics institute, has also come up with another potentially important role. ARM is taking on a role of evaluating the robotics programs offered by education institutions (primarily community colleges) to validate that they are providing current and relevant programs that meet employer needs in industrial robotics, based on advice from their member companies and experts.⁸⁰

There are also important activities to grow a national credentialing system that individual companies do not consider part of their responsibility. Some examples of such activities that MIIs could help facilitate are development and periodic revisions of technology standards behind credentials, technology skill development roadmaps, credentialing models, credential dissemination approaches, credentialing best practices, long-term credential performance, and credential value tracking systems. These can be essential and value-adding actions for MIIs in credentialing. Concerning standards, in addition to ISO 17024 and E2659, MIIs could participate in developing other standards to create “trust in the quality” of the certification (and re-certification) and credentialing. Some MIIs, as noted, are considering “credential endorsement.” ARM has already begun a pilot “endorsement” program, and if successful it points to an additional potential contribution for MIIs. Such endorsement criteria are expected to be transparent and adjust to market demand and input from industry. In addition to existing standards (such as ISO 17024 and E2659), regional manufacturing communities may consider additional standards to instill “trust in the quality.” Some MIIs are beginning to review apprenticeship programs and may be able to assist in developing standards to accompany these. Longer-term, an accreditation-like review system will be necessary for 2-year college advanced manufacturing programs.⁸¹ The requirements for professional credentials could be used as a foundation for curricula development in high schools, 2-year colleges, and universities. The network of 2-year colleges seems to offer a productive partnership for MIIs to build, in collaboration with local industry, credential curricula and programs, and in meeting the needs of regional manufacturers. Such industry credentials can be embedded into their academic courses and modules.

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⁸⁰MIT MassBridge.

⁸¹ Bonvillian and Sarma, 2021, “America Needs a New Workforce Education System.”

Findings

Finding 3.13: Many DoD MIIs have started pilot programs in the area of credentials and certification.⁸² To accelerate the development, MIIs could continue to form joint projects and partnerships with educational institutions including 2-year community/technical colleges and local industry in developing credential curricula and programs, meeting the needs of regional manufacturers.

Finding 3.14: Credentialing currently is not widely used in industry in hiring and promotion.⁸³ The role of MIIs in building and reaching a critical mass of national recognition and acceptance of industry-recognized credentialing includes credentialing and certification standards, credentialing models, best practices, long-term performance and return-on-investment tracking, and endorsement. An inter-agency effort including Department of Labor and Department of Health and Human services, will accelerate creating a critical mass. Working in concert with NIST and standards bodies would create credibility. These steps could be essential in widening and accelerating the acceptance and adoption of industry-recognized credentialing.

Recommendations

Recommendation 3.6: OSD ManTech should encourage the MIIs to build strong partnerships with educational institutions including 2-year colleges and industry in developing credential curricula and programs that meet the needs of regional manufacturers.

Recommendation 3.7: OSD ManTech should encourage the MIIs to engage industry, education, training, and credentialing organizations, standards development organizations, and other government agencies in increasing public awareness, and accelerating the recognition and acceptance of industry-recognized credentials in their technology areas.

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⁸²MIT MassBridge.

⁸³ Committee interviews on December 4, 2020, with Emily DeRocco and Michael Brit-Crane; January 6, 2021, with Emily DeRocco and Michael Brit-Crane; April 6, 2021, with Mary Ann Parcelli.