Spartanburg Community College is committed to supporting the manufacturing industry in our community though the Center for Advanced Manufacturing and Industrial Technologies (CAMIT). The Workforce Education and Research Center at Clemson University (WERC) and CA2VES are a strong partner in our efforts to build and improve advanced manufacturing education capabilities. CA2VES has created a unique method to develop additional educational resources to support our CAMIT faculty, but the association with Clemson has helped us reach our students with a broader set of digital resources.
The involvement of our faculty with Clemson in curriculum and virtual reality (VR) development activities associated with WERC and CA2VES yielded more benefits than we anticipated. The materials developed though the partnership have been excellent resources for our programs and have provided a stronger foundation to our manufacturing classes. However, the ancillary benefits are even more valuable than the developed resources. The faculty interaction with the WERC and CA2VES staff have developed a culture change within the CAMIT division and refocused our manufacturing faculty. Our faculty consistently seek new methods for improving their courses to have a positive impact on students and generate successful student outcomes for these future technicians. SCC Advanced Manufacturing faculty are redesigning curriculum to reduce barriers to students and are looking to develop more online and hybrid classroom delivery options. We have a strong group of advanced manufacturing faculty with high quality curriculum and labs working to support the manufacturing workforce demands.
SCC and WERC has also leveraged other partnerships to develop VR material and curriculum for water treatment and wastewater technicians. SCC and Clemson requested, and were approved, for a sub-award through the M-S AMC (Multi-State Advanced Manufacturing Consortium) grant project for this development. The VR Water Treatment project addresses a workforce issue that serves everyone in the community as well as the manufacturing industry. Regional subject matter experts from upstate water/ wastewater facilities worked as content advisors to identify the Performance Based Objectives (PBO’s) necessary to develop the VR simulations and curriculum. These materials will be available to share with other institutions. We believe the partnership between Spartanburg Community College, WERC, and CA2VES will continue to benefit South Carolina.