Process technology is a relatively new area of interest for secondary education. But industry has seen the benefit of hiring employees with formal education in process technology as evidenced by a recent study completed by the CAPT which showed that (1) 63% of the process-technology-intensive companies surveyed now require an Associate Degree in Process Technology (2) of these same companies, they found that employees with an Associate Degree in Process Technology outperformed their cohorts in 13 of 14 categories including demonstration of safety knowledge, ability to learn new concepts, demonstration of job knowledge, and listening and responding positively to supervisor and others. The demand for process technology graduates is strong, and should remain strong, in the Great Lakes region through 2012 as industry struggles to replace an experienced but rapidly aging workforce with new hires who must be able to add value from day one.

The institutions listed below are located in the Great Lakes region and have process technology programs:

Lewis and Clark – Illinois

Delta College – Michigan

Owens Community College – Ohio

Lambton College of Applied Arts and Technology – Sarnia, Ontario, Canada

Tri-State University – Indiana

Ferris State University – Michigan

Midstate Technical College – Wisconsin

Curriculum

Most process technology programs follow the curriculum defined by The Center for the Advancement of Process Technology (CAPT) known as PTECtm. CAPT is funded by the National Science Foundation to develop and promulgate process technology education programs.
To achieve this objective, CAPT encourages institutions that offer a two-year degree in process technology to include an eight course technical core as part of the degree. Furthermore, institutions that offer an exit option in oil and gas production are encouraged to add two specialty courses to the degree. CAPT and its partnering alliances, including the GLPTA, have created a variety of instructional products to meet the need of the process industries, including the core classes associated with a degree in process technology. For more information, please visit the CAPT web site.

The core courses associated with a degree in process technology include:

Introduction to Process Technology	Process Technology III - Operations Quality
Process Technology I - Equipment	Process Troubleshooting
Process Instrumentation	Oil and Gas Production I *
Process Technology II - Systems	Oil and Gas Production II *
Environment, Health, and Safety

* Courses for Oil and Gas Production Exit Option