Industry leaders come together to help students continue learning during COVID-19 crisis

The manufacturing industry is already facing a skilled labor shortage, and the onset of the COVID-19 crisis has presented an additional challenge for educational institutions, temporarily closing schools across the nation and interrupting face-to-face learning.

To help meet the challenge of building the industry’s future workforce, the newly formed CTE Coalition, led by Lincoln Electric, Tooling U-SME, NC3, camInstructor, Haas Automation, and SkillsUSA, has mobilized to create the website Keep CTE Moving, a central portal at www.ctecoalition.com where instructors and students can access hundreds of online classes, videos, and instructional materials in areas such as machining, welding, mechatronics, Industry 4.0, and programming. All online materials are produced and supplied by the coalition partners, with the majority available at no charge through mid-April 2020. The goal is to help career and technical education faculty and students continue their teaching and learning in a new virtual environment as quickly as possible.

Understanding the urgency for education to respond to the crisis, coalition partners also are providing recorded sessions with CTE instructors highlighting best practices in how to effectively use e-learning and online resources to educate students and quickly transition to a virtual learning environment.