Advanced Manufacturing Technology

Advanced manufacturing programmes train the people who keep a modern production line running — automation, controls, robotics, instrumentation and the mechanical systems underneath them. ⚠ It is the trade that sits where electrical work, mechanical work and programming meet, which is exactly why it is hard to fill.

The degrees this program covers

Florida stacks this one from a very short entry point upward. The Certified Production Technology certificate is 300 hours and a single completion point — the fastest credential on this site — and it maps to the national MSSC Certified Production Technician assessments. Above it, Industrial Machinery and Controls Technician runs 1,200 hours across four completion points, from assistant to technician II. ⚠⚠ That second framework is new in 2025 and its course numbers have no carriers yet: colleges are still teaching the predecessor courses — production technology, automation, mechatronics and industrial machinery maintenance — so ask what a programme actually delivers rather than which framework it names. An associate degree in engineering technology sits above both.

Careers this program leads to

Each one sets out the courses along the way, the licence or certification at the end, and the sources behind it.

Industrial Maintenance Technician

Industrial maintenance technicians keep production machinery running — mechanical drives, hydraulics, pneumatics and the controls over them — and are who a plant calls when the line stops. ⚠ 439,600 employed, growing much faster than average, 45,700 openings a year, and a training pipeline in Florida of four or five colleges.

Manufacturing and Mechatronics Technician

Manufacturing technicians keep automated production running — controls, robotics, instrumentation and the mechanical systems underneath — by following a fault across electrical, mechanical and software boundaries. ⚠ Florida's entry certificate is 300 hours, the shortest on this site, and the training travels much further than the job title suggests.

Manufacturing Production Supervisor

First-line supervisors run a production crew — scheduling, training, safety, quality and the paperwork behind all of it. ⚠ It is the largest source of annual openings on this site (67,700 a year) at a median of $74,450, and it has no degree behind it: nearly two thirds of entrants report no degree at all. This page is about how the promotion is actually reached.

Production Technician and Assembler

Assemblers and production workers build what a factory makes. It is one of the largest groups of manufacturing jobs in the country, and the usual way into the industry. ⚠ No credential is required to start. Florida's 150- to 500-hour courses help you get hired at better plants, earn a soldering certification, and start the climb to technician, inspector or supervisor.

Semiconductor Technician

Semiconductor technicians make microchips: they work in cleanrooms, running and maintaining the tools that pattern, etch, deposit and package silicon. ⚠ A small occupation growing much faster than average, and Florida pays it almost $11,000 above the national median. Florida's programmes are new: an 18-credit cleanroom certificate that stacks into a calculus-based A.S.

Careers that name this program, but not as a route

CAD Drafter

⚠ Not a drafting programme, but the adjacent skill worth the most: a drafter who can also program the CNC machine or run the 3D printer that makes the model is a different hire entirely.

Electronics Engineering Technician

⚠ The same skills by the clock-hour route, aimed at the plant floor rather than the bench — shorter, cheaper, and hiring hard in Florida.

Industrial Engineering Technician

⚠ The hands-on counterpart — if you would rather keep the machines running than analyse why they stopped, that path is shorter and hiring harder.

Machinist

⚠ Where the machines themselves are kept running. A machinist who moves into automation and controls leaves the production wage behind.

Programs similar to this one

Neighbouring fields that share much of the same coursework, and often the same employers. ⚠ Read these before you commit to a major — which doors a neighbouring degree keeps open is the part no catalog tells you, and it is far cheaper to change now than later.

Electrical Technology 41 Florida schools

⚠ The nearest neighbour, and a genuine fork: an electrician wires buildings to the code, a manufacturing technician keeps machines and controls running inside one. Much of the first year is shared, and the two trades poach each other constantly.

Engineering Technology 76 Florida schools

The degree route above the certificates — and the usual next step for a technician moving toward automation engineering, maintenance planning or supervision.

Welding Technology 47 Florida schools

The fabrication side of the same plant. Maintenance technicians who can weld are markedly more useful in a breakdown, and both certificates are taught at the same technical colleges.

Industrial Machinery Maintenance 7 Florida schools

⚠ The closest neighbour and an overlapping one: automation and controls is where industrial maintenance is going, and the same colleges teach both. If you enjoy the electrical and control side more than the mechanical, read that one.

Industrial Production Technology 19 Florida schools

⚠ The hands-on counterpart at the same colleges: this programme improves the process, that one keeps the machines running. Many students end up taking courses from both.

Machining Technology 18 Florida schools

Where machining sits inside a modern plant — automation, controls and the maintenance of the machines themselves. The usual route from running a machine to keeping the line running.

Electronics Engineering Technology 20 Florida schools

Where these skills go inside a plant — controls, instrumentation and automation. The clock-hour route to much of the same work.

Civil Engineering Technology 8 Florida schools

A different industry using much of the same technician skill set — measurement, drawings, quality — and far more widely taught, if the construction sector is not the attraction.

Drafting and Design Technology 25 Florida schools

⚠ 3D printing and CNC programming both begin from the model you build in a drafting course, which is why the additive manufacturing course appears in both programmes. A drafter who can also set up the machine that makes the part is a different hire.

Florida public institutions offering this program

28 institutions awarded a credential in this field in 2023, at these levels: Associate, Certificate (1-2 years), Certificate (12 weeks-1 year), Certificate (2-4 years). A school appears here if it awards anything in the field, however limited its offering — a technical college teaching only practical nursing has a nursing program. Listed alphabetically, not ranked.

Big Bend Technical College

Certificate (1-2 years) · Certificate (12 weeks-1 year)

Chipola College

Certificate (12 weeks-1 year)

College of Central Florida

Certificate (12 weeks-1 year)

Eastern Florida State College

Certificate (12 weeks-1 year)

Florida Panhandle Technical College

Certificate (1-2 years) · Certificate (12 weeks-1 year)

Florida State College at Jacksonville

Associate · Certificate (12 weeks-1 year)

Fort Myers Technical College

Certificate (1-2 years)

Gulf Coast State College

Certificate (12 weeks-1 year)

Hillsborough Community College

Certificate (12 weeks-1 year)

Indian River State College

Certificate (12 weeks-1 year)

Lindsey Hopkins Technical College

Certificate (1-2 years)

Manatee Technical College

Certificate (1-2 years) · Certificate (12 weeks-1 year)

Miami Dade College

Associate · Certificate (12 weeks-1 year)

Miami Lakes Educational Center and Technical College

Certificate (2-4 years)

North Florida College

Certificate (12 weeks-1 year)

Orange Technical College-South Campus

Certificate (1-2 years)

Palm Beach State College

Certificate (12 weeks-1 year)

Pasco-Hernando State College

Certificate (12 weeks-1 year)

Pensacola State College

Certificate (12 weeks-1 year)

Polk State College

Certificate (12 weeks-1 year)

Saint Johns River State College

Certificate (12 weeks-1 year)

Santa Fe College

Associate

Seminole State College of Florida

Certificate (12 weeks-1 year)

South Florida State College

Associate · Certificate (12 weeks-1 year)

St Petersburg College

Associate · Certificate (12 weeks-1 year)

Suncoast Technical College

Certificate (12 weeks-1 year)

Valencia College

Certificate (12 weeks-1 year)

Withlacoochee Technical College

Certificate (1-2 years)

Source: federal IPEDS completions data for 2023, first majors only — the most recent year published. ⚠ It records what was awarded, which is strong evidence of what is offered, but a program launched since 2023 will not appear here. Check the institution’s own catalog before applying.

Updated 21 September 2026. ⚠ Program pages describe a field of study, not one school’s degree — always read the catalog of the institution you are applying to.