Providing Opportunities for Women in Next Generation Electric Vehicle Technologies

Rio Hondo College, City Of Industry CA

Investigators

Abstract

This project serves the national interest by developing a new Women’s Academy called Providing Opportunities for Women in Next Generation Electric Vehicle Technologies (WINGS-EV). WINGS-EV, as a learning community model, is industry-driven, standards-centered, and STEM-based, and will result in the development of new educational materials, curricula, coursework, lab exercises, internship opportunities, and comprehensive student support services. Even as the automotive industry moves forward with electric mobility and self-driving cars, it is held back by a deepening talent crisis. Today, women account for only 27 percent of the US auto manufacturing workforce as compared to roughly 47 percent of the overall labor force. Rio Hondo College’s WINGS-EV Women’s Academy will extend current research on barriers faced by women desiring to enter the electric vehicle technician workforce and barriers that arise in transitioning from high school to a community college (especially those that serve underserved communities) to baccalaureate-granting institutions. As a learning community model, WINGS-EV intentionally links together courses or coursework to provide greater curricular coherence, more opportunities for active teaming, and interaction between students, faculty, and industry partners. There are two overarching goals of WINGS-EV: 1) to meet the workforce needs of employers who require trained, qualified, and experienced technicians; and 2) to increase the number of female students in the hydrogen and electric battery technicians’ program. The broad impacts of WINGS-EV include integrating the high-performance electronics, computer management skills, customer management, and advanced technology diagnostic skills that ready participating students for employment. At the same time WINGS-EV will assist diverse high school populations by encouraging female students to enroll in dual enrollment, thereby attaining two- and/or four-year technology degrees more quickly. By focusing on recruitment, retention, and support strategies required to increase female enrollment for one specific automotive subject (EV technicians), future growth can be accommodated by adopting the same strategies for other interdisciplinary STEM fields within technology education programs. This project is funded by the Advanced Technological Education program that focuses on the education of technicians for the advanced-technology fields that drive the Nation’s economy. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.