ODU and IALR to launch manufacturing engineering tech degree

ODU and IALR to launch manufacturing engineering tech degree

ODU to provide 4-year diploma on Norfolk campus and IALR satellite campus

Katherine Schulte


ODU will start a four-12 months diploma in producing engineering know-how. Photo by Mark Rhodes

Outdated Dominion University will start Virginia’s initially 4-12 months diploma in production engineering technological know-how (MfgET) at its Norfolk campus and a satellite campus at The Institute for Superior Learning and Study (IALR) in Danville, the college declared Thursday.

“This partnership reinforces Previous Dominion University’s dedication to workforce development and leadership in the maritime sector,” ODU President Brian O. Hemphill claimed in a assertion. “Students throughout Virginia will be in a position to attain the vital abilities to fill important protection work, aligning talent with option.”

The method will be housed in the engineering and engineering department of ODU’s Batten School of Engineering and Technological innovation. IALR will offer you on-internet site, digital and hybrid third- and fourth-year undergraduate lessons for the MfgET program.

“The production sector has developed into an really substantial-tech subject with specialized talent requires, specifically in the significant skill lack areas of producing engineering,” IALR Interim President Betty Jo Foster mentioned in a statement. “We are delighted to companion with Aged Dominion College, Patrick & Henry Neighborhood Higher education and the Virginia Community University Technique to address the have to have voiced so strongly by the defense industrial base, our regional employers and sector leaders.”

Students will be in a position to enter the software from neighborhood colleges, IALR’s Academy for Engineering and Know-how and career and complex dual-enrollment systems. Patrick & Henry Group Higher education in Martinsville will launch a corresponding affiliate diploma that will serve as a pipeline to the workforce and a pathway to ODU’s 4-12 months degree.

“This initiative will help our nation continue being competitive on the world-wide phase as we get ready talent who possess the skills, expertise and competencies that are critical for 21st-century brands,” P&HCC President J. Gregory Hodges explained in a assertion.

The bachelor’s and associate degrees are portion of the 32-member Virginia Maritime Industrial Base Consortium’s Expertise Pipeline Initiative, which aims to create talent for protection and industrial base companies by a K-12-to-university pipeline. The Virginia Office of Veterans and Defense Affairs prospects the VMIBC, and the Division of Defense awarded the consortium a $5 million grant in October 2021.

The colleges are building the programs’ curricula, which will start in the next 12 months of the grant cycle.

Production sector companions joined the start celebration on IALR’s Danville campus Thursday.

Gary Camper, main running officer of Lynchburg-based mostly BWX Technologies Inc.’s nuclear functions group, said in a assertion, “Our extended-phrase forecast for naval nuclear propulsion operate displays a solid demand from customers for many years and getting a steady pipeline of proficient store personnel and producing engineers is vital to our extensive-phrase development.”