METS Mobile Lab Nears One Year Anniversary Pioneer Technology Center’s (PTC) METS Mobile Training Lab has been very busy since its first event this past January in Oklahoma City. The mobile lab is an extension of PTC’s Manufacturing Education Training System initiative better known as METS. During the last year, the connections between the needs of manufacturing and the METS Mobile Lab have continued to grow. Manufacturers who are normally apathetic and complacent regarding education and its ability to support them, are becoming re-energized and excited about a marketing tool that will help them recruit future employees. Manufacturing is starving for ways to help them find skilled employees. The mobile lab is giving them hope of a future workforce. Manufacturers from many areas of the state are saying, "Finally somebody understands what we need to help us market our job opportunities." Several neighboring states have asked the mobile classroom to visit their areas, so they can show, not tell, their elected officials, their manufacturers and their workforce professionals what Oklahoma has in place to change the delivery system of skilled workers and to develop a METS lab like PTC's. Community leaders and heads of government workforce agencies, business solution professionals and career educators enter the classroom and see the opportunity of real world alignment to those who use it. An invitation to Pioneer Tech from MIT Fab Lab (yes, that MIT!) to become one of five Fab Lab locations in the world says something about what's in place to allow Ponca City to connect to the rest of the world regarding our innovation, skills and productivity. Most important are those students who make the connection with classroom studies and what they experience in the mobile lab. Many don't want to leave; they want to learn more as they begin to understand why math, science, and language arts are important and relevant to life. How many will eventually enter a manufacturing job or advance to higher education degrees because of their experience in the lab is yet to be known. Time will tell if the seeds planted sprout and grow. The mobile lab has covered 11,000 miles and has been visited or used by nearly 10,000 students and adults, many educators from K-12, state and national colleges and many local, state and national manufacturers. There is no charge to those requesting the lab for events within the Pioneer Technology Center district. When the mobile lab attends events outside the Pioneer Tech district, PTC charges $600 per day plus $2.50 per mile both ways. Since January of 2008, slightly over $40,000 in user fees have been collected from those requesting the lab outside the PTC area. A partial list of location visited this year would include: Moore Norman Tech US Postal Training Center Meridian Tech's Career Day State Capitol of Oklahoma Newkirk Middle School Braman and Peckham Schools McAlester for their 1st Kiamichi Career Expo St. Mary's and Lutheran Schools Blackwell Middle School - Gifted and Talented Students Tonkawa Middle School PC Alternative School St Mary School, Ponca City First Lutheran, Ponca City Robotics competition in OKC at the Cox Convention Center during Spring Break Northwest Technology Center, Fairview Bergan Manufacturing - Grove, OK Indian Capital Tech Center ME2 summer camp Hill Manufacturing - Broken Arrow, OK Aerospace Day, OKC USAO in Chickasha, OK Economic Summit Meeting - Wes Watkins Center, Stillwater, OK Oklahoma School of Science and Math Week at the Kay County Fair Johnston Supply Company, Tulsa, OK Alliance annual meeting and Governors Conference on September 23rd, Tulsa, OK Chickasaw Nation, Tishomingo, OK Oklahoma Summit on Economic & Workforce Development - OKC Career Expo in McAlester (2nd time to be invited to this) Four days in Tulsa as the main attraction to recruit for the Craftsmanship Program Sophomore Success Event at PTC and Po Hi (2 days) and more.... “An old friend of mine used to say, "If you don't like the way the game is being played, quit pointing fingers. Get out of the stands and get on the field, rewrite the play book and make a difference." That's exactly what we're doing at PTC and in Ponca City. We're rewriting the play book with a clear focus on our true responsibility of creating a workforce for our community and our state.” “Simply put, the lab is an educational tool, a workforce development tool and an economic development tool, with the sole purpose of elevating Pioneer Tech, our students, our communities and the state of Oklahoma, to a level of excellence that is dreamed of by many yet reached by few.” (Laurence B.)

Posted on Wednesday, December 10, 2008 (Archive on Monday, January 12, 2009) Posted by ljackson  Contributed by ljackson

Return