The biggest thing most instructors at technical schools face is the fact that their equipment is generally obsolete and they can't teach their students on the tools and hardware and software they'll be using in the real world of process automation. Joliet Junior College, in Joliet, Ill., has a Process Control Instrumentation Technician program, but they won't be behind the times, as you'll see in this story from the Joliet Junior College Newsroom:
"One of the challenges instructor Ed Meyers has faced while building Joliet Junior College’s Process Control and Instrumentation Technology (PCIT) program is finding the funds for the equipment needed in the classroom. Now, thanks to a $3,500 grant from the LyondellBasell Morris Complex, the program will be able to purchase much-needed Delta V control systems, an essential part of hands-on learning for PCIT students."
Read the rest of the story here: http://news.jjc.edu/2013/09/jjc-pcit-program-receives-grant-from-lyondellbasell/
If you are in the position to give money to your own local technical college, please do so. We desperately need engineers and technicians, and will need more over the next decade. Somebody has to train them. To train them takes money. So please give.
Thanks to LyondellBasell for stepping up. Nice going!
