ATE Impacts 2020-2021

ATE Projects/Centers Recruiting Underrepresented Populations Women Underrepresented racial or ethnic minorities Veterans First generation to attend college Individuals from rural areas Persons with disabilities 19% 30% 37% 52% 64% 69% Over half of the ATE projects that developed or modified academic programs in 2018 emphasized recruitment of women or underrepresented racial or ethnic minority students. n=70 projects/centers Recognizing that technicians increasingly participate on innovation teams within companies and that in the future many technicians will likely be in business for themselves, 59 ATE initiatives taught 7,380 students business and entrepreneurial skills in 2018. Slightly more than half of these programs utilized course units or mentoring. Workshops, clubs, entire courses, and incubators were other ways that ATE projects and centers added entrepreneurship lessons to their programs. The leaders of ATE centers generally have broad goals such as developing initiatives that can be scaled nationally or industry-wide. Generally working on a smaller scale, principal investigators of ATE projects address specific workforce challenges in their regions that create model programs for others to adapt and adopt. ATE Broadens Participation of Diverse Populations in Skilled Technical Workforce Whatever their particular goals, most ATE grantees connect with secondary school teachers and two-year and four-year college instructors. These cross-sector efforts are developing robust career pathways that are accessible to high school students involved in dual-enrollment programs, to adults seeking new careers, and to incumbent technicians who want to refresh their skills. To prepare educators to reach these various audiences, many ATE centers and projects offer faculty professional development. In 2018 alone, 44,050 students were impacted by the lessons their instructors learned during professional development programs offered by 135 ATE grantees. ATE initiatives recruit populations underrepresented in high-tech fields including racial and ethnic minorities, people with disabilities, women, and veterans. During 2018, 65 ATE projects were located at minority- serving institutions; 49 of them were federally designated Hispanic-serving institutions. EvaluATE reports that “over half of the ATE projects that developed or modified academic programs emphasized recruitment of women or underrepresented racial or ethnic minority students.” Increasing the participation of diverse populations in the STEM workforce is a key goal of ATE grantees as they endeavor to prepare a new generation of highly skilled technicians for the advanced technology fields that drive the nation’s economy. * All numbers rounded to nearest ten. Source: ATE Annual Survey: 2019 Report from EvaluATE (https://evalu-ate.org )