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CAPT History

Evolution of Process Technology Education

The Texas, Louisiana, and Mississippi Gulf Coast region is home to the largest complex of petrochemical industries in the nation. More than two thirds of the nation’s major petrochemicals are produced in this area, which is also a major source of oil and gas production in the U.S. The East and West coasts of the U.S. are home to the majority of the pharmaceutical industry. These industries along with power generation, pulp and paper, and others employ large numbers of personnel in the workforce and the job of the process technician is critical to their success. These employees perform critical tasks such as operating and monitoring equipment, troubleshooting, controlling for product quality and promoting safety awareness.

The projected high number of baby-boomer retirements over the next 5 to 7 years is expected to create a shortage of process technicians within the petrochemical, oil and gas production, and pharmaceutical industries. Companies throughout the U.S. are wanting and seeking qualified workers who possess the skills and knowledge needed to perform successfully in this fast-paced job.

The Gulf Coast Process Technology Alliance (GCPTA) forms to streamline process technology education

In 1993 representatives from the petrochemical industry in the Texas City area met and formed a committee to discuss process operator education. They discussed increasing the courses in pre-hire education that were offered at the college level and industry supporting it. Industry was seeking to go beyond the technical courses and do something more in the area of general education. It was decided that a two-year AAS degree program needed to be established. The names process technology (PT) and process technician instead of plant operator were adopted.

The committee searched to find out if others were doing pre-hiring education along the lines of what it wanted to accomplish. Visits were made to area colleges to see what they were doing and the information obtained along with the committee’s ideas were used to map out what the committee wanted to accomplish. Job task analyses were conducted at several locations with a number of first class operators from the petrochemical industry in the Texas gulf coast area. The operators brainstormed their job duties and all of the tasks that an operator has to do as part of the job and a curriculum was put together from this information.

In July 1994 representatives from industry and education brought the proposed curriculum to the State of Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board. The board approved the program and the state guidelines for the Process Technology program were established.

Three community colleges and one university: Alvin Community College, Brazosport Community College, College of the Mainland, and Lamar Institute of Technology were the institutions in Texas that offered the Associate of Applied Science Degree in Process Technology. However, upon examining the curriculum at these institutions, industry discovered that each school was teaching different courses and thereby producing graduates with varying levels of skills and knowledge. Industry wanted to streamline the education process and guarantee that all institutions were teaching the same curriculum. To tackle this initiative, they formed the Gulf Coast Process Technology Alliance (GCPTA) in 1996.

One of the first goals of the GCPTA was to standardize the core technical components of the degree program in process technology to meet industry needs. Whereas the Alliance members had the knowledge to develop the curriculum, juggling this effort with their full-time job responsibilities became a challenge. In 1997, College of the Mainland on behalf of GCPTA submitted and was awarded the first of two Perkins grants to develop process technology curriculum. A full time person was hired and work on curriculum began with the Instrumentation course. With award of the second Perkins grant in 1998, the Introduction to Process Technology and Safety, Health and Environment courses were completed. All of the curriculum materials were developed using the objectives that had been established by the GCPTA Education Sub-Committee, which consisted of industry and education representatives in equal numbers.

For its efforts, GCPTA had become a nationally recognized, industry-driven partnership between industry, education, government and communities. As the word spread and GCPTA members began to share their success stories with others in different areas of the country there soon were other alliance partnerships being formed: the Louisiana LAPTEC Alliance, the Greater New Jersey Process Technology Alliance, the Oklahoma Partnership of Industry and Education Alliance, the Alaska Process Industries Career Consortium, and the Southern California Chemical Technology Alliance. These alliances began to adopt the concept of standardization of process technology education and provide support and input into curriculum development. More than 60 major petrochemical and refining facilities, along with 23 community and technical colleges in 10 states, were working together to develop the workforce needed for the future of the chemical and refining industries. GCPTA realized there was a need to pursue further grant funding in order to continue to standardize the core technical courses and deliver them to the schools.

Two federal agencies came to the rescue

As a member of the Alliance, College of the Mainland acted on its behalf and submitted a proposal in October 1998 to the National Science Foundation (NSF), an independent U.S. government agency that invests over $3.3 billion per year in programs that promote science and engineering. Specifically, the proposal requested funding to complete the curriculum development of the eight core technical courses. One year later, the NSF awarded College of the Mainland a $900,000 grant through its Advanced Technological Education (ATE) program. With emphasis on two-year colleges, the ATE specifically supports the education of technicians for the high-technology fields that drive the U.S. economy.

This grant allowed the GCPTA to create the Center for Advancement of Process Technology (CAPT). Housed at College of the Mainland, the Center’s main role was to work with GCPTA members to finish developing the eight core technical courses and provide them to all of the community and technical colleges belonging to the Alliance.

As part of the grant award, the Center was recognized for its unique strengths. Victoria Bragin, former Program Director for the ATE program acknowledged that the project involved “extraordinarily strong alliances and partnerships with business and industry”. This capability puts the Center, “in a good position to successfully produce industry-based materials which would benefit process technicians”.

In addition, the Center was charged with redesigning the courses for Web-based delivery to upgrade the skills and knowledge of process technicians currently in the field. But, more funding was needed to produce Web-based courses that leveraged the interactivity possible with this learning environment and still maintain the high quality standards of the Alliance.

Once again, College of the Mainland partnered with the GCPTA and secured a $921,000 grant from the Fund for the Improvement of Post Secondary Education (FIPSE) in 1999. A division of the U.S. Department of Education, FIPSE supports the implementation of innovative educational reform ideas within the larger education community. The grant was funded through their Learning Anytime Anywhere Partnerships (LAAP) program which supported partnerships among colleges and universities, employers, technology companies and other relevant organizations to create post-secondary programs that deliver unique and high-impact distance education programs “anytime and anywhere.”

Degree program fulfills regional industry needs and helps educational institutions recruit students

According to Mike Kukuk, former plant training foreman at Sterling Chemicals, and an original Alliance member, who experienced this impact firsthand, “This revolutionary degree program is making significant strides in the world of industry and education. We hired from multiple colleges, and our confidence in the quality of students improved as the curriculum and materials became more standardized. The grants have made the standardization possible. This also means that improvements have more of a global impact. Furthermore, the distance-learning component allows access to the program for potential process technicians who cannot meet a regular college schedule or who don't have a program located nearby. Without the funding, we would still be a small group, working on a part-time basis, trying to do an enormous job, without much hope for timely success."

From an educational standpoint, the Associate of Applied Science in Process Technology program has become a successful recruitment tool. Community and technical colleges are able to present potential students with a degree plan that provides the knowledge and skills they will need and that will help them in seeking to acquire high-wage employment following graduation. In fact, annual median salaries range between $40,000 and $48,000. This has been a strong incentive for women and other minorities, who are traditionally not well represented in this industry, to seek the degree.

Turning dreams into reality…from a regional to a national effort

In 2002, CAPT was designated an NSF ATE National Center of Excellence for Process Technology Education and awarded a three-year grant for $3,000,000. With this grant CAPT is committed to form a self-sustaining national alliance of two-year colleges working in collaboration with process-related businesses and industries, education, professional associations, and government to prepare a quality 21st century technical workforce that drives the operations for the major energy, chemical, and oil and gas producers.

CAPT is committed to accomplish this through curriculum development, professional development, providing for building capacity and self-sufficiency, and by providing information and dissemination as they relate to process technology education.

The Center is a national collaboration between education and industry in six partner alliances in its commitment to process technology education: Alaska Process Industry Careers Consortium, Gulf Coast Process Technology Alliance, Oklahoma Partnership of Industry and Education Alliance, Greater New Jersey Process Technology Alliance, Louisiana Alliance, and Southern California Chemical Technology Alliance.

The Alliance Partnerships have a vision…PTEC™ education…It’s a force that’s working.