Edgewater, MD:  

Over the past few months, the 22 member Marine Industry Technical Education Council (MITEC), which was formed to address and help solve the growing shortage of marine technicians, has established a mission statement, confirmed the election of Officers, created interim by-laws, and has established Divisions.  Division Chairs are now asking for industry professionals and educators to support the MITEC effort by volunteering to participate on working committees     

Established Divisions include:

·         Career Awareness & Opportunities – to propose career awareness programs and initiatives for the community, industry and educational institutions that promote career fields and opportunities in the marine trades;

·         Professional Development – to propose, and if approved, implement and manage a program that will review voluntarily submitted assessment-based courses that award certification or accreditation upon successful completion;

·         Economic Resources – to seek, investigate, acquire and/or facilitate transfer or award of available economic resources desired by education and training centers in support of their programs (ex. materials support for a high school or trades program);

·         Workforce Development - to propose and implement programs that work with local, state, federal and “other” workforce development councils, associations, etc. to provide economic support to marine organizations that provide workforce training and professional development to their technicians;

·         Organizational Administration of MITEC – to propose, and if approved, manage an appropriate education information management system, and also ensure the efficient flow of information regarding MITEC and its working committees between members of the MITEC, as well as industry.

If you are interested in making important industry improvements that will positively affect the future education and training of our industry’s workforce, you can respond to this call for participation in two ways:

·         Register for the 2006 Conference on Marine Industry Technical Training (COMITT), where the members of MITEC will be available to answer questions, and attendees will have the opportunity to sign up for a committee and also sit in on a particular Division’s working committee; or

·         For those who cannot attend COMITT ’06, but are interested in volunteering for this valuable cause, email Skip Burdon, MITEC Secretary at sburdon@abycinc by no later than January 19, 2006.

COMITT ’06 will be held January 23 – 24, 2006 at the Safety Harbor Resort & Spa in Safety Harbor, FL.  The theme for this year’s conference is “Resources for Success.”  Visit www.abycinc.org and click on the COMITT logo for registration information and program updates.