New center to improve quantity, quality of tech workforce
>>Print ViewPublication Date: 02/26/2009
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Purdue has launched a new center through the College of Technology that will help Purdue have a positive impact on the nation.
On Feb. 9, The Center for Professional Studies in Technology and Applied Research, known as PROSTAR, was approved by Purdue Provost Randy Woodson and Richard O. Buckius, Purdue’s vice president for research.
Gary Bertoline, the associate dean for graduate programs and research in the College of Technology, wrote in an e-mail that the center is the first step toward helping Purdue and helping the nation.
“The center will begin to fill the gap in training and educational programs that currently exists, which will increase the quantity and quality of a technical workforce, resulting in a positive impact on our nation’s economy and increase innovation in business and industry,” Bertoline said.
“The center was established to coordinate professional (non-traditional) educational programs for the College of Technology and to increase the number of professional educational programs offered to business and industry,” he said.
The need for the center was spurred by many factors, which include “the nation’s need to prepare a technical workforce, to coordinate the growing professional programs being offered through the College of Technology and to coordinate the growing number of applied research projects with business and industry,” Bertoline said.
Mark Schuver, Purdue’s director of professional education, wrote in an e-mail that the center was created from past programs.
“In the past, each department was on their own to develop and provide resources for these programs,” Schuver said. “Rather than recreate the administrative expertise in each department, it made sense to centralize these functions and allow the academic departments to focus on their core strengths of curriculum and faculty development for their signature areas.”
The center will benefit many areas on campus, including students working in technical career areas, employers of graduates, faculty and the state and federal governments, Schuver said.
The center is also grabbing the attention of the American Society for Engineering Education and is being used as a model that could be replicated at other universities, he said.
PROSTAR will build on existing programs and help to create new change within the College of Technology.
“The center will build on a few of our existing professional programs, namely the Weekend Masters Program and a masters program being offered on site at the Rolls-Royce plant in Indianapolis,” Bertoline said. “There are also entirely new programs being planned which includes a certificate program with Boeing Corporation in Seattle, Wash., and MS programs offered through our Statewide Technology locations in communities such as Columbus, Ind.”