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For the past three years, the National Alliance for Photonics Education in Manufacturing (NAPEM) has 'partnered' with industry to develop, deliver and evaluate continuing education programs on optics and photonics applied to manufacturing processes. NAPEM is an alliance of CREOL/University of Central Florida, the Industrial Technology Institute, the University of Connecticut, The University of Texas at Austin, and SPIE -- The International Society for Optical Engineering. NAPEM formed in 1994 as the result of partial funding through a U. S. Technology/Reinvestment Project/Manufacturing Education and Training grant monitored by the National Science Foundation. NAPEM targeted four applications of optics in manufacturing processes. Each of these manufacturing process corresponds to a geographical region in the United States: semiconductor manufacturing in the Southwest, durable goods manufacturing in the Midwest, laser materials processing in the North East, and optics manufacturing in the South East. Course programs were typically modular, offered in half- to full-day formats. This paper focuses on lessons learned by Alliance members in the process of fulfilling NAPEM's mission. Specifically this paper addresses: (1) Challenges and benefits of university and professional association partnerships on program development, promotion and evaluation; (2) challenges and benefits of partnering with industry on program development, evaluation and continuation; (3) the importance of developing 'learning partnerships' with human resources, engineering and technical managers from industry; (4) matching delivery mechanisms to industries' educational 'habits;' (5) challenges and solutions for addressing different industries' readiness to utilize high-technology.
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