Welcome to the Business Journal Archives
Search for articles below, or continue to the all new BusinessJournalDaily.com now.
Search
Guidance Counselors See Firsthand How Manufacturers Operate
NEW CASTLE, Pa. -- Five years ago, you’d be hard pressed to find Brenda DeVincentis, a guidance counselor at Neshannock High School in New Castle, Pa., walking the factory floor of a local manufacturer.
Indeed, conventional wisdom tells us that few in the academic profession have little reason to visit an assembly line, machine shop, production line, or explore how manufacturers in the region go about designing and making things. A counselor’s job, it’s understood, is spent advising students, not observing welders, machine operators, fitters or grinders.
But a program launched five years ago in Lawrence County seeks to change this by developing a direct conduit between producers and students via their schools’ guidance and career counseling departments.
In short, it’s a “boot camp” that allows counselors to gain firsthand knowledge and experience about industry by visiting various manufacturers in the region, and taking the message back to students, other educators and parents.
“We don’t see what these companies do on a daily basis,” DeVincentis says. “If we don’t know about the companies and what they offer, what kind of job opportunities there are for high school students when they graduate, then how can we put that information out to the students and the parents?” she asks.
So, it’s on a snowy Friday morning in early February that we find DeVincentis huddled not behind a desk, but with 15 others of the same profession watching a welder performing his trade at Advanced Feedscrew Inc., New Castle.
The company manufactures large-diameter feed screws that are used to propel materials such as plastic and rubber in the extrusions and injection-molding process.
“It’s very valuable,” DeVincentis says of the program. “We’ve been doing this now for five years, and we’ve hit almost every local business and manufacturing company in Lawrence County.”
Convincing young people to enter the ranks of industry isn’t easy, she concedes, especially with so many other options available today. Still, business owners and educators are making more of an effort to make students aware of available jobs or post-secondary training that could lead them into a rewarding career in manufacturing and industry.
“For those students who value work ethics, education, they want to work with their hands, they want to do something rather than a four-year traditional degree – we’re getting the word out,” DiVincentis says.
The boot camp, administered by the Lawrence County School to Work program, consists of taking high-school counselors on day-long visits to manufacturers in the region. On this particular Friday, 16 counselors boarded a bus bound for Advanced Feedscrew, Devido Stone & Marble, Ferguson Perforating, and the North American Dental corporate office, all in New Castle.
Phil Cunningham, co-owner of Advanced Feedscrew, told counselors that if there’s one discipline their students need to develop strengths in, it’s mathematics. “I’m not talking about higher math,” he qualifies. “We deal with basic math here – multiply, divide, fractions, percentages, angles.”
A student who enjoys hobbies such as woodworking, likes to tinker with cars, builds models, has strong math skills, or one who simply enjoys working with his hands, is usually a good candidate for a career in industry and manufacturing, Cunningham says.
Welding, grinding, polishing, machining – all are the trade skills used to produce Advanced Feedscrew’s products that are milled and machined to precision tolerances.
The majority of the employees at Advanced Feedscrew have learned these skills on-the-job, Cunningham says.
“We have 25 employees. Only two of those employees had machining experience when they were hired.”
Starting wage at the company is $11 an hour, Cunningham notes. Top-tier wage is $19.50, which does not include production bonuses that can range from $5,000 to $10,000 a year to be divided among employees. “If we make money, we spread it around.”
Last year, the company saw $3 million worth of sales. Eighteen years ago, when the company first started, it recorded sales of just $100,000. “We’ve sold feed screws all over the world,” Cunningham reports, although 95% of its sales are within the United States.
Turnover at Advanced Feedscrew is very low, he says, and the company is likely to hire on average every two years.
Programs such as the industry “boot camp” are a vital component of a larger strategy to spread the word about opportunities in manufacturing, says Eric Karmecy, project manager of the Oh-Penn Pathways to Competitiveness, an initiative that is part of the Oh-Penn Manufacturing Collaborative.
The collaborative is a consortium of private manufacturers, educators and nonprofit organizations that strives to attract new faces to careers in manufacturing while promoting how the sector remains a competitive and vital part of the local economy.
Among the greatest concerns for manufacturers in the region is how to feed a pipeline of new talent into industry and manufacturing, as an entire generation of machinists and welders prepares for retirement, Karmecy says.
“We surveyed 38 manufacturers,” he reports. “Our manufacturers are most concerned about long-term employment. That there is an aging workforce, that they have to compete for qualified applicants, and that young people aren’t pursuing these career opportunities.”
Thus, it’s difficult for companies to find qualified employees for available positions, he observes.
To reverse this trend takes the cooperation of both education and industry, Karmecy says. “It’s important that the experts – the people in the field and those who do the jobs on a daily basis – get out and talk to these young folks.”
Industry also needs engineers and those with degrees as well, Karmecy notes, adding it’s helpful to expose students to these options at an early age. “You need to get them out in the field to see this type of work,” he says.
Karmecy says although manufacturers are concerned about replenishing the workforce, trade programs at area career and technical schools are drawing more attention from students.
“In past year, tech centers were likely to tell you that they’ve struggled to fill classes in manufacturing-related courses,” Karmecy says.
But today, new welding programs at the Mahoning County Career & Technical Center, Laurel Technical Institute’s consideration of a new welding curriculum and Choffin Career Center’s efforts to purchase new equipment and add new programs reflect a sense of renewed interest.
“For example, five years ago, the machining program at the Mercer County Career and Technical Center may have had three or four students,” Karmecy says. “Today, they have well over 30.”
Other trade schools are experiencing growth, Karmecy says, pointing to recent expansions at the New Castle School of Trades.
The bottom line for Karmecy and other advocates is simple. The region’s manufacturing base is the most important sector of the economy, employing more than 11% of the workforce. To secure and increase this base, it’s incumbent upon industry, labor, education and government to help train the workforce of the future.
“We produce a lot of cool things. There’s a lot of diversity here,” Karmecy says. “Manufacturing is, and will continue to be, the lifeblood of this region.”
EDITOR'S NOTE: This story first appeared in March edition of The Business Journal.
Copyright 2014 The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.
CLICK HERE to subscribe to our free daily email headlines and to our twice-monthly print edition.