What do manufacturing students in Mississippi need to learn to be prepared for work in the Defense Industry?
This is the question the University of Mississippi’s Center for Manufacturing Excellence was charged with asking–and addressing–in a grant they received from the Department of Defense in 2018.
Under this grant, CME will (1) identify critical gaps in manufacturing training in Mississippi, then (2) develop curriculum materials so classes can be run to address those gaps.
CERE has been working alongside the CME as part of this process. So far, we have examined the geographic spread and economic impact of defense industry spending in Mississippi, with the goal that this information could be used to target the geographic focus of CME’s curriculum-development efforts. During the next phases of this project we will support CME through a needs assessment study, an evaluation of their community engagement processes, and a curriculum assessment study.
