Our leaders have so many roles to fill as building and system administrators. When TOSS ALI first began offering programming, one of our top five requests annually was to allow our leaders to 'see inside' the world of work in Tennessee. We travelled to Nissan in Rutherford County twice to tour TCAT programs in mechatronics and robotics, visited FEDEX in Memphis twice to see navigational CAD programming in action, and our most recent live visit was to Denso in East Tennessee. When the Covid-19 virus forced so many changes to our nations industry, we were no longer immediately allowed back on to the floors of our industrial locations. We knew however, that leaders may not always understand the link between the academic work in our schools and its real-world application.

From that desire to allow our leaders to 'see' world of work realities, the World of Work: TCAT Program tours began. This one-day, four-hour training offers the leader an opportunity to see a TCAT learning center in real time via ZOOM, a TCAT class of students in a learning environment, and a filmed view of the world of work opportunities that those students might hope to experience after completion. The attendees spend time talking about the courses and skills necessary to be successful in those careers. This session will introduce or re-introduce the participant to the Tennessee Colleges of Applied Technology and support work that a leader does to help all students graduate college and/or career ready. Topics covered include an overview of:

• the TCAT program academic structure;

• technical education accreditation requirements;

• what makes a student successful at a TCAT;

• how TCAT’s support workforce development in Tennessee;

• the TCAT opportunities in 2022/2023.

***4 TASL CREDITS APPROVED***