After seven successful cohorts, SUNY Oswego’s Instructor Bootcamp concluded its last round of training in December 2025, marking a significant milestone in SUNY Oswego’s ongoing effort to strengthen the region’s technical education and workforce development capacity. 

Funded by a two-year (2023-25) $340,963 grant from Empire State Development Office of Strategic Workforce Development awarded to the Research Foundation for SUNY (on behalf of SUNY Oswego),the SUNY Oswego Instructor Bootcamp was created to address the shortage of qualified instructors across high-demand industries by training industry professionals from the trades, STEM and healthcare backgrounds. The Instructor Bootcamp curriculum was designed and taught by seven faculty members in SUNY Oswego’s College of Education, Health and Human Services (CEHHS). 

The program’s grant partners who provided in-kind support along with SUNY Oswego included Cayuga Community College, CenterState CEO, SUNY Syracuse Educational Opportunity Center and Washington D.C.-based apprenticeship readiness program TradesFutures.

The 40-hour Instructor Bootcamp was delivered in-person (Cohort 1) and then transitioned to synchronous (real-time) delivery for Cohorts 2-7 via Zoom to accommodate participants who wanted to enroll from across New York state. 

The Instructor Bootcamp’s five modules included instruction in curriculum development, course delivery, classroom management and assessment practices to prepare participants to teach in career and technical education programs, community colleges, adult education and workforce training settings, and in apprenticeship readiness and registered apprenticeship programs. The Instructor Bootcamp also included a micro-teaching requirement during which participants had a chance to practice teaching and receive real-time feedback from the SUNY Oswego faculty members. 

The Instructor Bootcamp prepared professionals from fields such as construction, healthcare, advanced manufacturing, electronics, engineering, mechatronics and mechanical technology who were preparing to or recently had transitioned into teaching roles with the skills needed to develop lesson plans, assess learning and engage a class of learners. 

Participants received an integrated introduction to essential teaching skills, enabling them to bring real-world experience to a variety of classroom settings, including virtual offerings, traditional brick-and-mortar classrooms and construction/building sites.

Success story

The Instructor Bootcamp demonstrated exceptional success in achieving the grant’s completion and employment goals. The program achieved an 89 percent completion rate across seven cohorts (80 graduates out of 90 participants) and an 87.5 percent instructor placement rates among its alumni, with 70 of 80 graduates (as of early April 2026) employed or retained as instructors in regional community colleges, adult education programs or apprenticeship training initiatives within one year of completing the program. 

“SUNY Oswego’s Instructor Bootcamp has prepared professionals from across New York state, all from high-demand industry areas, to be effective instructors; and it has built a new bridge between industry and education,” said SUNY Oswego Assistant Vice President for Workforce Innovation and External Relations Kristi Eck, who also served as Instructor Bootcamp principal investigator and project director.

“Over the course of the seven cohorts, 25 workforce development partners have hired and/or retained Instructor Bootcamp graduates as instructors,” Eck noted. “These instructors all bring direct industry experience as welders, engineers, painters, nurses, etc. to the classroom and they are using their expertise to instruct and prepare our next generation of workers.”

SUNY Oswego Career and Technical Educator Preparation Department Chair Benjamin Ogwo, a co-principal investigator on the grant, engaged several faculty from his department and others in the College of Education, Health and Human Services –- including Donna Matteson, Jan Woodworth, Star Matteson, Cynthia Thomas, Ritu Radhakrishnan, David Parisian and Najah Zaaeed –- to deliver this innovative program.

“We are proud that the faculty of CEHHS equipped these professionals with the pedagogical knowledge and skills they need to inspire and prepare the next generation of skilled workers across Central New York and beyond,” Ogwo said. 

Regional partners also affirmed the success of the program.

“The impact of the Instructor Bootcamp at SUNY Oswego will be seen in Oswego County and Central New York for years to come. By offering essential instruction to talented professionals, the bootcamp prepares the instructors of tomorrow to make a difference in the lives and skills of our workforce,” said Cayuga Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs Keiko Kimura. “Cayuga Community College was proud to work with SUNY Oswego and our other community partners on this important initiative, and we look forward to seeing the continued development and success of our workforce.” 

“The bootcamp dramatically reduced the time it took for one of our most promising new adjuncts to transition from ‘new to teaching’ to ‘confident and experienced adjunct,’” Mohawk Valley Community College Assistant Vice President of Learning and Academic Affairs Jake Mihevc said. “Adjuncts with the skillsets in demand in Advanced Manufacturing can be very difficult to find, so there is real value in rapidly upskilling an adjunct such as our participant. Our participant is teaching three sections this semester, and this program dramatically increased the quality of our instruction in those critical sections.”

SUNY Oswego’s Instructor Bootcamp inspired the SUNY Oswego Regional Teacher Bootcamp Program -- a transformative initiative to strengthen STEM education and career pathways across Central New York. 

SUNY Oswego’s Instructor Bootcamp, along with seed funding from Micron, allowed SUNY Oswego to build a blueprint for the SUNY Oswego Regional Teacher Bootcamp Program -- a transformative initiative to strengthen STEM education and career pathways across Central New York. The SUNY Oswego Regional Teacher Bootcamp Program was announced in March 2026 as a $1 million dollar grant recipient from the Micron Community Investment Fund. 

The SUNY Oswego Regional Teacher Bootcamp Program will be delivered in partnership with the Oswego County Center for Instruction, Technology and Innovation (CiTi) BOCES and Onondaga-Cortland-Madison (OCM) BOCES. This program will support a continuous STEM pipeline from kindergarten through higher education, helping better prepare students for college and careers – particularly in the rapidly growing semiconductor and advanced technology sectors.

For more information on the Instructor Bootcamp, visit oswego.edu/owier or contact Assistant Vice President for Workforce Innovation and External Relations Kristi Eck via owier@oswego.edu.