The
Boston-area Advanced Technological Education
Connections (BATEC) is an NSF ATE Regional Center,
like MPICT. Its
mission is to develop and promote a
coordinated, self-sustaining, regional education and
workforce development system for IT, one that will
attract a diverse student population to IT careers,
promote lifelong learning of IT skills and support the
workforce needs of the region's IT companies and
departments.
BATEC’s
vision is to transform education to develop
the new IT professional for the 21st century by: (1)
providing curriculum adaptation and professional
development to deliver relevant, standards based
programs that are regionally connected, advanced in
content and pedagogy and industry-linked; (2)
attracting and advancing a diverse population of
technology students who can effectively meet the
challenges of emerging technologies and changing
economies; and (3) connecting education, industry and
community to promote mutually-beneficial partnerships
that support career development, lifelong learning and
regional economic growth.
Very similar to MPICT, BATEC has a
strong
4 year plan,
leadership team,
Advisory Board,
National Visiting Committee, and
collection of educational partners. BATEC’s
Media Kit is an easy place to develop an overview
of BATEC’s good work. The BATEC partnership includes:
host institution University of Massachusetts Boston;
6 Community Colleges; 11 K-12 Districts; Business and
Industry Leaders; Government and Community.
BATEC sponsors a variety of
events and programs, including
Summer Institutes, the
BATEC College Fair,
Community College Fairs,
Mini Tech Fairs, high school outreach events,
Tech Apprentice, a
Student Leadership Initiative and an
ICT Futures Forum. It coordinates and promotes
curriculum development in a coherent manner. It
has produced some excellent publications, which are
worth reviewing in our region, because they are
relevant here also:
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The
"BATEC Information Technology Workforce Skills
Study ", authored by MPICT’s external
evaluator, Peter Saflund,
The Saflund Institute, is a year-long study
that presents data on current and future IT
workforce skills requirements gathered from IT
workers, hiring managers, and strategic planners
from companies such as Raytheon, Staples, Partners
Healthcare, Blue Cross Blue Shield, Molecular,
Whaleback Systems and many more. The study
focuses on technician and technologist jobs in IT
and will help community colleges, 4-year
universities, and secondary schools provide an
adequate supply of properly skilled IT
professionals to domestic and trans-national
enterprises whose operations are increasingly
IT-enabled and more IT-dependent. This is a very
high quality study that is completely relevant to
MPICT’s region also. One of the findings of the
study, which is consistent with MPICT’s
interactions with industry and business, and
findings of the
The Partnership for 21st Century Skills, is
the importance of soft or employability skills.
That has led BATEC to a project called “Verifying
Employability Skills: A Model Project Measuring
the Impact and Involvement of Industry
Partnerships.” One of the great challenges to
current ICT education pedagogy is how to impart
these highly demanded employability skills, and we
are trying to do that, we need to be able to
assess how well we are doing. |
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BATEC’s
"Community College Outreach Toolkit", by BATEC
Outreach Director Jibril Solomon, is a manual
designed to assist community colleges in their
outreach planning efforts. Again, this is
excellent material very relevant to community
college ICT educators in the MPICT region. |
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"The Gap Guide: A Resource for Educators Working
with Industry" was developed by
BATEC Curriculum Director
Joyce LaTulippe with the input of several
of BATEC's partners in education and industry.
The guide outlines specific steps educators can
take to partner with industry in their community.
Yet again, this is excellent material very
relevant to community college ICT educators in the
MPICT region. |
For more information on BATEC,
explore the website or contact BATEC Director, Deborah
Boisvert at (617) 287-7295 or by
email.
