Stark State College, alongside Lorain County and Owens community colleges and the Ohio Association of Community Colleges, recently received a $2.35 million National Science Foundation grant to create a statewide model for advanced manufacturing education.
The program will align the trio’s foundational courses with industry needs in automation, artificial intelligence and microelectronics, with plans to expand it to other community colleges and states.
Ohio boasts the country’s third-largest manufacturing workforce, part of a $117 billion industry. Those jobs are no longer the grimy, factory line positions of decades past but have evolved into technician positions requiring a background in engineering and robotics.
“We already know that Ohio is a manufacturing powerhouse,” said Stark State President Para Jones. “Manufacturing is a huge part of our state economy and JobsOhio is projecting another 540,000 graduates will be needed in technology, advanced manufacturing and life sciences by 2032. We’re excited to be part of making sure that Ohio has the needed technicians.”
The four-year pilot program, known as the Strategic Coordination for Advanced Learning and Employment in Manufacturing (Ohio Scale-M) consortium, will consolidate industry-related skills spread between advanced manufacturing and engineering courses into a single, three-course credential track, explained Donald Ball, Stark State’s dean of business, engineering and information technologies, targeting the creation of technicians for a regional workforce.
The grant runs from Oct. 1 to Sept. 30, 2030. Stark State will take the lead on designing the foundational courses, with OACC connecting the trio’s work to the state’s other community colleges.
Classes in the new core curricula are expected to open to students in 2027.
Dan Burklo, Owens Community College’s dean of the college’s Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics school, addressed the need for the curricular overhaul.
“I do think there’s a misconception of what manufacturing is and what jobs are out there,” he said. Everyone has an understanding of what a job in healthcare entails, he said, but there is a disconnect in manufacturing.
That disconnect helped expand a gap in the number of qualified technicians versus the number of jobs. In Northwest Ohio alone there is a deficit of about 14,000 technicians right now, Burklo said, and that number is projected to increase.
Statewide, manufacturing job numbers are expected to ebb and flow during the next decade, but demand will remain high due to longstanding talent shortages.
Ohio as a whole faces a “serious gap” in its manufacturing workforce that the colleges’ partnership hopes to help fill.
“All of our students in programs now, when they leave here, they’ve got multiple opportunities,” Burklo said. “We’re hoping to get more people through those programs. … We don’t produce enough graduates.”
Ohio looks to become ‘Silicon Heartland’
The new courses, Ball said, will pull from current curricula within Stark State and the other colleges. Students will focus on everything from simple machining and assembly to technical communication, robotics maintenance and troubleshooting, basic data analytics and automation.
“This really targets [the] technician-level workforce,” Ball said. “It’s the modernization for technical education of it, and it’s really the engine that drives the regional innovation ecosystem that we have.”
Part of the grant includes an ambassador program to connect manufacturing representatives with recruited college and K-12 students to explain what careers in the burgeoning field look like and what credentials they need for the future.
That includes connecting to high school students through College Credit Plus options and preparing them for short-term credential tracks or four-year degrees at neighboring universities.
The question isn’t whether jobs in the sector are coming, said Tracy Green, Lorain County Community College’s special assistant to the president, but if Ohio will be ready.
“We have to dramatically shorten the distance between what employers tell us they need and what students are learning in our classrooms and labs,” Green said. “Through this project we would be creating industry-aligned credentials that can be taken at any one of our three colleges and then scaled to other institutions.”
Lorain County Community College’s strategic plan includes awarding 35,000 more degrees by 2035, with a focus on programs that provide graduates with economic mobility and fuel the regional economy. The expanded technician program offered by the NSF grant will fit into that goal.
“We need more individuals seeing themselves in these roles,” Green said, pairing the college’s goal of boosting upward mobility for its students with the needs of the industry.
Where Stark State is at the epicenter of polymer investment in Summit County, LCCC is part of a push for Ohio to become the “Silicon Heartland.” Where Northern California’s Silicon Valley is known for hosting tech industry giants, Ohio wants to bring the manufacturing side of the business to the Midwest.
The community college has related certificate programs, including a four-year bachelor’s degree in microelectronic manufacturing — preparing students for careers in semiconductor technology.
Artificial intelligence is a tool, not a replacement for technicians
At the western edge of the community college trifecta involved in the grant is Wood County’s Owens Community College. Nestled in an area known for its glass manufacturing, automotive and solar industries, Burklo sees the need for entry-level technicians all around.
Burklo has worked with the Ohio Manufacturing Association to see what the model curriculum would need to be.
It is part electrical and part mechanical engineering, he said, with a shot of artificial intelligence.
“All of our advisory boards, as they speak about what they’re looking for … they all want them to have the ability to use AI,” Burklo said. “I’m an engineer by trade, so I’m always using the calculator. They want that mindset with AI.”
Burklo, and others, agree the goal is not to “keep up” with AI, but to train students to use it as a tool.
Students currently in Owens College’s electrical or mechanical engineering tracks will have the option to move to the new curriculum once it is up, he said, or will receive the new modified classes as they move through the existing tracks.
Northeast Ohio sees region-wide federal manufacturing investment
The award comes on the heels of another National Science Foundation designation that could bring $160 million in federal funding to Northeast Ohio.
Northeast Ohio, including Akron, was selected as a regional innovation engine, one of a dozen awardees nationwide. It guarantees $7.5 million in federal funding for each of the first two years of the program, with the potential to bring additional investment.
Akron’s Polymer Industry Cluster, which has already garnered outside investment, is one of the three categories that the NSF grant will focus on.
“There’s a workforce component — this aligns perfectly with that grant as well,” Jones said. “This is really going to prepare students for manufacturing.”
