Collaborative Research: Obtaining Great Jobs in Advanced Manufacturing through Experiential Learning Opportunities

This ExLENT Explorations Tack project is a partnership to expand employment opportunities in the advanced manufacturing and construction sector. The partnership intends to grow a competitive workforce by engaging participants in hands-on learning experiences in state-of-the-art laboratories, along with internships at STEM employers. The project is designed to extend support beyond the initial experiential learning activities. Participants receive financial, academic, and career focused assistance to participate in short-term training aimed at securing stable employment. These supports are a critical component of the overall strategy to strengthen workforce readiness. By training more people to work in this high-demand sector, this project supports economic growth at both the regional and national level. This project aims to explore how a short-term, high-support training and internship program can effectively prepare individuals without postsecondary degrees for family-sustaining careers in advanced manufacturing and construction. To achieve this, the team will implement and evaluate a two-month hybrid training and internship program that includes hands-on technical training, paid work experience, and wraparound support services. This project is expected to generate new insights into how support-intensive, community-based interventions can serve as effective, scalable alternatives to college and university-based degree pathways into STEM fields. Findings will be shared openly and disseminated to researchers, educators, workforce trainers, employers, and other stakeholders engaged in building the advanced manufacturing and construction workforce. The goal is to develop a replicable model that can be adapted to other regions and extended to additional high demand STEM sectors. By embedding research, targeted interventions, and evaluation throughout the project, the team seeks to produce actionable insights that can inform workforce development efforts nationwide. The NSF ExLENT Program supports inclusive experiential learning opportunities that provide cohorts of learners with the skills needed to succeed in emerging technology fields. 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.