Industry-Led Academic Program Development

Recognizing the strategic importance of establishing a talent pipeline for the growth of Facilities Management, the local chapter of the International Facility Management Association (IFMA) sought to collaborate with academic institutions.Initial attempts to connect with various programs were unsuccessful.Concurrently, the Applied Engineering program (formerly Engineering Technology), known for hands-on pedagogy and strong industry collaboration, learned of IFMA's interest in developing certified facility managers.Through a series of meetings between the local IFMA Chapter and academic faculty, a draft program was developed.Faculty, teaching suitable content from other colleges, were included in the initial discussion to minimize the need for creating new content classes, and thus reducing barriers for implementation.It was also decided to add the new curriculum as a concentration under the Engineering Technology program which would expedite the launch process.At the time IFMA was directly accrediting programs and our development team, led by industry, had several conversations with IFMA accreditors to ensure alignment with the program.Leveraging a university wide competition to encourage interdisciplinary programs, a final program was developed and submitted to the competition, winning first place.This provided the needed resources and encouragement to finalize and launch the new program concentration.A new concentration in Facilities Management was launched in Fall 2019.In addition, IFMA's local chapter supported the initiative through funding for recruitment and paid internship positions.Using cross college collaboration, only one new class was added which was developed and is taught by IFMA Chapter members as adjuncts.Due to the change in the IFMA accreditation process for programs, from Fall 2023 it was decided to change the concentration to a Certificate in Facilities Management under the new Applied Engineering department.This is open to all majors and is aligned to IFMA Facility Session ETD 325