Marine Workforce: Florida’s First Chapter of FAME launches at Daytona State College

Daytona State College has officially launched Florida’s first chapter of the Federation for Advanced Manufacturing Education (FAME), a collaborative effort between DSC and local manufacturers designed to match students in the AS Engineering Technology program with job opportunities in the community.

A group of nine students who make up the first cohort were paired with sponsoring employers Tuesday during a “Signing Day” ceremony at the Advanced Technology College, which kicked off three days of training and orientation. Students will work with their respective companies full-time until classes begin on August 23, after which they’ll attend college two days a week and work three at their sponsoring company with at least 24 hours per week on the job.

Companies currently working with Daytona State through the FAME program are:

• ABB
• B. Braun
• Boston Whaler
• Dougherty Manufacturing
• Dynamic Engineering Innovations
• Everglades Boats
• Germfree
• Hudson Technologies
• Pentair
• SCCY Firearms
• Sparton

Students selected to participate are James M. Brady Jr. (Palm Coast), Tanner Thacker (Deltona), Justin Murray (Palm Coast), Ean Le (South Daytona), Jacob Havens (Deltona), Tyler Cheatham (Deltona), Nicholas Le (Palm Coast), James Giesinger (Deltona) and Kevin Metcalf (DeBary). 

“This inaugural cohort of our FAME program is the culmination of several months of work with key stakeholders,” said Dante Leon, Associate Vice President of the DSC College of Business, Engineering and Technology. “The local companies that formed the FAME chapter, the Volusia Manufacturers Association and Volusia County Schools were instrumental in getting this program launched. We are very excited to be part of this initiative that will create a pipeline of highly trained technicians.” 

The signature purpose of FAME is to implement work-based learning education that will create a pipeline of the most highly skilled new workers. It currently has 36 chapters in 14 states, nearly all of them in conjunction with college associate degree programs. 

Daytona State is using its AS degree in Engineering Technology, Mechatronics specialization, as the academic home of the FAME program. Industry experts provided input into course selection and sequencing to customize this degree for the workplace.

The curriculum focuses on professional behavior and lean manufacturing principles following the Toyota model of the original FAME chapters. Graduates will earn their AS degree in two years with approximately 1,800 hours of paid on-the-job training with their sponsoring company. Students finishing the FAME program are well-grounded in both their technical and professional skills, have relevant work experience in their field and often finish with little or no student debt.

Daytona State will soon start accepting applications for its second cohort, which will join the program in the fall of 2022. Interested students can visit DaytonaState.edu/FAME for complete eligibility requirements and the process for application.