Westbrook is hoping that teaching kids about video game software could nurture a tech-savvy labor pool that would, in turn, attract high-tech companies.
The city has just received a $10,000 federal Community Development Block Grant to look into developing a software-testing lab. The lab would be the first of its kind in Maine.
The city is looking to join with the Westbrook Regional Vocational Center, local colleges and Westbrook-based MESDA, the statewide software developer and information technology industry association, to incorporate teaching with real-life software testing. The partnership could become the first of its kind in the country, according to those involved.
Students would begin dabbling in rudimentary programming in the eighth and ninth grades, and continue their learning at the vocational center and then college. At the same time, they’d get real-world experience through work at the software-testing center, which would be located at the MESDA office.
The testing center would be a not-for-profit endeavor that would also serve as a learning and certification center for both students and adults interested in entering high-tech job markets.
The idea is to use gaming software as a way to get kids interested in emerging technology, and eventually have high-tech replace the trades as the basis of the region’s economy.
“Up until 1990, there was the mill. And you made a very good living,” said Erik Carson, Westbrook’s director of economic and community development. “When the mill downsized, we needed to transition from manufacturing to emerging technologies. We don’t make machinists anymore.”
According to Carson, a joint effort between a software-testing lab and local schools would help build an employment base for companies such as Idexx, whose employees are attracted to the area from out-of-state because of the quality of life. With an employment base already established in the area, more companies would be willing to come.
Just this year, the vocational center added a two-year computer programming course of study, with an additional year as advanced study. Programming had been an elective, with the class held every other day for 80 minutes. Students now meet every day for 80 minutes the first year and every day for two hours the second and third year.
“The programming aspect will trickle down to the eighth grade,” said Todd Fields, vocational center director. “One of the influential things about breaking the program out into its own (course of study) is the work that we’ve done with the grant.”
Collaborating on the grant proposal were Tyler Dunphy, the information technology point person for the city and the school department; Joseph Kumiszcza, executive director of MESDA, Fields and Carson.
According to Kumiszcza, the proposal is a twist on the usual educational model, in that students working at the testing lab would get paid for their educational experience, instead of the other way around. The type of skills learned at a testing facility are also skills that can be applied to a number of jobs after students finish their schooling, said Kumiszcza.
“Who are the end users? What is the product designed to do? What are the logical steps to ensure it’s created properly? That can be applied to anything,” he said.
Kumiszcza said the curriculum for the students would be created with the help of businesses to ensure that it keeps up with the latest real-world technologies.
“It’ll be designed for today’s technology, not four or five years ago,” he said.
The $10,000 grant is funding development of a business plan for the project.
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