Abstract

World-Class Technicians in emerging and rapidly changing fields such as Photonics require interdisciplinary technical skills, a strong, practical academic/technical core, highly interactive people skills, and the ability to think critically and solve open-ended problems. An improved curriculum and delivery system is required that spans both secondary and postsecondary experiences, along with employer-provided internships. A strong, useful math/science foundation must be provided using contextual teaching and learning strategies.

A Photonics Technician education program will be presented that demonstrates the new curriculum model described above. The Photonics Technician Program has been recently designed and developed in the USA under an NSF grant. It is being tested in community and technical colleges. The technical aspects of the program are based on a Laser/Electro-Optics Technology curriculum, developed by CORD, that has been successfully used by twenty-five colleges as well as hundreds of businesses in the USA over the last twenty-five years.

© 2001 Optical Society of America