Knowledge, Skills & Abilities Initiative
The primary outcome of NCAT's core KSA initiative is to investigate common curriculum across the air, land and sea domains in partnership with industry partners and existing programs. Industry recognition and validation would be a second step in establishing this and outline a pathway (1-1.5 years) that could be instituted at many two-year colleges to provide the backbone knowledge skills and abilities that are common to multiple autonomous technology technicians. Students could then determine which sector they are most interested in and transfer to a school that provides specific training such as ROV or UAS technician training.
Ideally it would drive interest in STEM and make these career pathways more accessible to a larger segment of the population, particularly underrepresented and underserved populations. Many two-year colleges already train the core knowledge but do not offer a credential in an AT field and may not have instructors qualified to teach the specific skillsets needed to produce an ROV or UAS technician. This project will also help uniform future developments of educator workshops, STEM camps and student competitions.