Delivery of a certificate program for Chief Engineers

Chief Engineers and other technical leaders in high-tech companies face increasing personal demands as the job becomes more diverse as well as more complex. To meet this challenge, the companies that participate in the Joint Arizona Consortium for Manufacturing and Education in Technology (JACMET) have established a training certificate program for future Chief Engineers and other technical leaders. The concept and design features were outlined at the ASEE 2004 Conference; this paper describes how the structure and content of the program fared after it had been delivered. The first delivery of each new class was given to a mixed group of peers and typical class attendees. That experience invariably widened the scope and resulted in substantial editing to reconcile pressure to include much more material but not extend the total course time. Experience from pilot and full-scale deliveries includes: Diverse companies and participants have a lot in common The challenge is more complex than we thought Clarify factors that are driving change in the JACMET companies The influence of maturity level of the course participants Topics that are filtering through to academic courses. Implications for other industry short courses and training programs are also briefly considered.