Discipline Specific Skill Acquisition (DSSA) for Engineering Technology First-Year Students

The National Institute for Direct Instruction 1 emphasizes the importance of skill mastery at the K-12 education level.The German education system provides skill mastery to post-secondary students through a well-choreographed "dual studies" system where on-the-job training and university lectures go in parallel 2.In its 2016 report, "The Future of Jobs Employment, Skills and Workforce: Strategy for the Fourth Industrial Revolution," the World Economic Forum suggests necessary changes in higher education 3.The first author of this paper experienced the benefit of learning technical skills through a German apprenticeship in his youth and published an article, Transforming First Year of ET Programs, in the proceedings of CIEC 2017 4.This paper presents what has transpired since then, demonstrating the design with stakeholder support, development with faculty participation, delivery with skill experts, and lessons learned from two cohorts of an apprentice-like skill mastery program for three engineering technology programs.