New Academic Discipline: SUPPLY CHAIN TECHNOLOGY

http://crconsortium.wpengine.com/new-academic-discipline-supply-chain-technology/Working with Norco College, the California State Academic Senate approved Supply Chain Technology (SCT) at its Spring Plenary session as a new academic discipline for the 112 community colleges in California.  A Supply Chain Technician (SCT) installs, maintains, and updates the equipment in automated warehouse or distribution centers such as Target, Amazon, Kohl’s, Wal-Mart, and FedEx.   The following article explains the job of an SCT and the skill sets required: http://www.mmh.com/article/the_new_role_for_supply_chain_technicians

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, jobs in supply chain are estimated to grow by 28 percent between 2010 and 2020, an average growth rate that is nearly twice as fast as 14 percent of all occupations.  Further, California leads the nation in the number of facilities that require supply chain technicians.

SCT is a broad field of expertise as characterized by the variety of different job titles, among them:  Industrial Machinery Technician, Industrial Maintenance Mechanic, Electromechanical Technician, and Mechatronics Technician.  Therefore, the emerging occupation of supply chain technician (SCT) represents an additional career pathway for students in CTE programs such as industrial maintenance, electronics technology, integrated systems technology and mechatronics/advanced manufacturing, since supply chain technicians are required to have many of the same skill sets. (www.supplychainteched.org/model-program.html)

The Academic Senate’s recognition provides a welcome opportunity for more colleges to adopt courses and programs to train these technicians.  The National Center for Supply Chain Technology Education, funded by the National Science Foundation’s ATE program, has developed an industry-led model academic program, including curriculum and other teaching resources to train faculty and students in Supply Chain Technology, available at no charge to all California Community Colleges.   These resources can be accessed at www.supplychainteched.org

Contact Elaine Gaertner, SCTE Education Liaison, for more information and technical assistance with this program at your college.  elaine@supplychainteched.org


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