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Formative evaluation of an innovative program to prepare non-technical majors to join advanced manufacturing workforce

The manufacturing industry has been thriving recently after decades of defection offshore and outsourcing. The manufacturing industry in the state of Massachusetts is particularly strong. Massachusetts and other US states report shortage of enough skilled workforce to fill advanced manufacturing positions such as robotics operators, programmers, CNC programmers, CAD operators, and QA personnel, to name a few. The labor shortage is attributed to the lack of STEM pipeline of students who are interested to pursue STEM careers including manufacturing. This paper describes an innovative approach of how to re-train non-technical majors (liberal arts graduates) for a second career to join the manufacturing workforce. The paper focuses on the formative evaluation of the approach. It covers the evaluation instruments including survey forms, data collection, data analysis, and insightful conclusions. The formative evaluation is conducted by a professional external evaluation organization and administered to the first cohort in a three-year NSF funded program.