Note to editors: For additional contacts and more details, see the following news releases:
California State University – www.calstate.edu/PA/news/2008/psp_csula.shtml
California Department of Industrial Relations - www.dir.ca.gov/DIRNews/2008/IR2008-72.html
Cal State L.A. brings education to new high-tech apprenticeship program
Collaborative effort encourages veterans, others to become engineers,
starting at Stellar Microelectronics
Part of Gov. Schwarzenegger’s Engineering Initiative, the program will begin in 2009. It is a collaboration of California State University (CSU); Stellar Microelectronics, Inc.; California State University, Los Angeles; College of the Canyons; and the State of California.
Cal State L.A. will provide educational guidance to strengthen the promise of the experience for participants.
“Many veterans are leaving today’s military service with high-tech skills and unparalleled field experience,” said CSU Chancellor Charles B. Reed. “CSU’s professional science programs will put these men and women to work, and produce the certification and degree they need to be successful.
“These programs align with the needs of California's technology manufacturing industry, helping provide the jobs the state needs in order to emerge from the current economic downturn.”
Stellar Microelectronics is an engineering, design, and production services company for electronics products in the biomedical, aerospace and military markets. Participants in the program, which is also open to non-veterans, will receive additional on-the-job training and education while employed by Stellar Microelectronics. The announcement was made at the opening of Stellar’s new Valencia, Calif., manufacturing facility.
Cal State L.A., in coordination with College of the Canyons, will provide academic direction and support for the apprenticeship program. Consistently rated among the nation’s best schools of its kind by U.S. News & World Report, Cal State L.A.’s College of Engineering, Computer Science, and Technology offers programs in civil, electrical and mechanical engineering; computer science and industrial technology.
According to Keith Moo-Young, dean of the College of Engineering, Computer Science, and Technology at Cal State L.A., “This apprenticeship program is a special opportunity for all of us involved. We enjoy building these types of bridges—bringing new students into engineering, giving them knowledge and experience, and connecting them to professional opportunities. We’re especially excited to help provide these new opportunities to veterans.”
# # #
Working for California since 1947: The 175-acre hilltop campus of California State University, Los Angeles is at the heart of a major metropolitan city, just five miles from Los Angeles’ civic and cultural center. More than 20,000 students and 205,000 alumni—with a wide variety of interests, ages and backgrounds—reflect the city’s dynamic mix of populations. Six colleges offer nationally recognized science, arts, business, criminal justice, engineering, nursing, education and humanities programs, among others, led by an award-winning faculty. Cal State L.A. is home to the critically-acclaimed Luckman Jazz Orchestra and to a unique university center for gifted students as young as 12. Programs that provide exciting enrichment opportunities to students and community include an NEH- and Rockefeller-supported humanities center; a NASA-funded center for space research; and a growing forensic science program, housed in the Hertzberg-Davis Forensic Science Center. www.calstatela.edu