Virtual Technician & Operator Training Program (VTOTP)

Executive Summary

The VTOTP project will baseline current technician and operator training, identify learning and development gaps, and align new training with industry needs voiced by representatives from relevant industries through the development and distribution of five eLearning courses. Through the achievement of three outcomes (roadmap, eLearning courses, and distribution to 200 learners), the project will have a national impact through access to a virtual, on-demand arsenal of courses which could be accessed from anywhere in the U.S. at any time and bring prospective workers up-to-speed quickly for industries that produce items critical to the supply chain including medications, PPE, vaccines, critical consumer goods, etc. Additionally, broad accessibility to advanced manufacturing training in a virtual environment allows equitable access to individuals in the current and future workforce pipeline, particularly those disproportionally impacted by coronaviruses.

The work on this project has progressed in three stages: preparing for and conducting a series of roadmapping workshops with process industry experts (Stage 1) that will define the operator and technician training to be developed (Stage 2) and disseminated (Stage 3). The project team holds bi-weekly project status meetings and weekly meetings with key stakeholders. RAPID has completed all three planned workshops. The three workshops were described in previous reports and are briefly outlined below:

Workshop #1: October 18, 2022, Virtual; Topic: Existing Programs, Best Practices and Pain Points.
Workshop #2: December 15, 2022, Cleveland, OH (MAGNET MEP); Topic: Current and Future Industry Needs for Operator and Technician Training.
Workshop #3: January 31, 2023, Houston, TX (San Jacinto College); Topic: Prioritizing Needs.

The results of the roadmapping efforts included a description of training best practices, pain points, communication strategies and training program considerations. Workshop attendees also reviewed and prioritized a list of 12 topic areas that could be effectively delivered in a virtual or computer-based training format. Lastly, the workshop attendees organized the list of topics into a progressive structure of courses, beginning with a recruitment level course and ending with an advanced course for experienced operators. The project team worked with subject matter experts identified by the North American Process Technology Alliance (NAPTA) to create the course content and is currently working with an instructional design team to convert the content into interactive eLearning courses.