As dean of Johnson & Wales University’s School of Technology, Francis X. Tweedie is transforming the college into a lab-based, applied-learning curriculum closely aligned with the needs of industry. As part of efforts to increase the school’s enrollment to at least 1,000, from about 600 full-time students today, and address a need for IT professionals, Tweedie holds advisory and board positions at Hope High School, the Beacon Charter School and the Davies Vocational School, and is helping to implement new math, science and technology curricula in those schools.

PBN: People think of Johnson & Wales University primarily as a culinary arts school. Can you explain about the School of Technology and its academic programs?

TWEEDIE: The School of Technology is the smallest college of the four colleges at Johnson & Wales – our day population is just under 600, and we have a continuing-education program that might put it at about 720. We have a B.S. in engineering, a B.S. in engineering design and configuration management, network engineering, software engineering, business information systems analysis, graphics and new media, Web – very diverse.

Our philosophy is similar to culinary in that we do specialized lab training to enhance the students’ ability to apply their skill sets, but we do it on the technology side. … Our whole foundation is based on project management. We’re focused on experiential education – our success comes from our co-ops and our students converting into jobs, and we have a high percentage of students that convert from their co-op to a job offer...

 

Full Story: JWU tech college looks to focus on needs of IT industry Source: Providence Business News, February 4th, 2008 Author: David Ortiz Added on February 5th, 2008 at 4:36 pm, by Judy He