If you want something built to suit your needs, sometimes it’s best to jump in and build it yourself.
That’s why manufacturing companies across the state are rolling up their sleeves to take part in a rapidly expanding educational partnership that’s been gaining attention in Kentucky and across the country. The program, based on a model launched in 2010 by Toyota Motor Manufacturing Kentucky in partnership with Bluegrass Community and Technical College (BCTC), combines apprentice-style work experience with classroom training to create job-ready workers for Kentucky’s advanced manufacturing industry.
“Manufacturing in Kentucky is critical. At a time when there are issues with a retiring workforce and with students being work-ready coming out of high school, this program helps to answer two critical problems for manufacturers,” said Mary Breeding, a consultant for the Kentucky Association of Manufacturers. “Five years ago, companies were hiring people away from each other, and now they are working together to develop this pool of highly trained people.”
That cooperative effort has coalesced as the Kentucky Federation for Advanced Manufacturing Education, or KY FAME, a partnership of manufacturers teaming up to address the growing shortage of skilled workers in their industry. Earlier this year, Gov. Steve Beshear established a statewide board of directors to facilitate the expansion of the program, and KY FAME has since grown to include six chapters across the state, including the Bluegrass, Northern Kentucky, Greater Louisville, Greater Owensboro, Cumberlands and Lincoln Trail areas. By the end of 2015, KY FAME is on track to add more chapters, with groups of manufacturers currently meeting in Calvert City, Bowling Green, Pikeville and Maysville to educate themselves on the program and its processes.
More than 70 regional manufacturing companies have already signed up to take part in the program, which works with local educational institutions to match students enrolled in advanced manufacturing technician (AMT) programs with companies that will provide paid workplace apprenticeships.
“It’s a twist on the apprenticeship programs, but it’s taking it to another level,” said Kim Menke, manager of external affairs and government affairs for Toyota Motor Engineering and Manufacturing North America, and a member of KY FAME’s board of directors.
“One of the things that we’ve discovered over the last 10 years or so is that many people don’t have the necessary skills coming into the job,” Menke said. “There are so many vacancies right now in these areas of skilled maintenance, and the technology is changing so fast, that we need people who can hit the ground running.”
Manufacturers of all sizes are welcome to participate in the apprenticeship program, Menke said. Students in the program spend two days per week in the classroom and three days per week at the job site. And the AMT classroom is not a typical college seminar space, according to Menke. It is more like a simulated plant fl oor, built to support the kind of real-world, hands-on learning experience that the program emphasizes.
Currently 65 students are enrolled in the AMT program at BCTC alone, said Carol Crawford, BCTC campus director and KY FAME liaison. The five-semester program offers an associate’s degree in industrial maintenance technology with a manufacturing track, Crawford said. Interest in the program has grown, and along with it the academic caliber of the students who are applying each year.
While most students enter the program directly from high school, some are currently employed workers looking to update their skills or those with previous college experience seeking new opportunities, Crawford said. The program also has accepted military veterans seeking education for new careers.
Companies pay their sponsored students an hourly wage for the time they spend at the workplace. The wages vary for different businesses, Crawford said, but some manufacturers also supplement some of the student’s tuition costs as well.
100 percent placement
KY FAME members are not required to sponsor students every year, and sponsors are not required to hire students after the program is complete, although most manufacturers enter into apprenticeships with that intent, Crawford said.
Nonetheless, the BCTCS program has had a 100 percent placement rate for its AMT graduates, Crawford said. Some graduates of the program have also elected to continue their studies after completing the AMT program, through a partnership with Northwood University’s Advanced Manufacturing Business Program, or by pursuing an advanced manufacturing engineering degree at the University of Kentucky’s College of Engineering.
“It’s a marvelous opportunity, especially for students coming out of high school, to start their careers,” Crawford said.
In addition to the statewide expansion efforts, the Bluegrass-based program is also poised to grow. BCTC broke ground in April for its new Advanced Manufacturing Center, located on a 20-acre site at Lanes Run Business Park in Georgetown, Kentucky, which will eventually house the college’s AMT program. The new facility will be capable of handling up to three times as many students as the program currently can, Menke said.
Manufacturing magnet
Aside from cultivating a homegrown workforce for the state’s established manufacturing base, programs like KY FAME also make Kentucky more attractive for manufacturers looking to relocate or establish new facilities. When manufacturers are balancing the pros and cons of potential locations, workforce availability is key, according to Menke.
“Workforce is the final deciding factor for folks,” Menke said. “You can have all the best incentives, but if you don’t have the workforce, [manufacturing businesses] aren’t going to come.”
Toyota has established the same educational model at its other U.S. plants, Menke said, and other international firms in Kentucky have started to take notice as well. German companies located in northern Kentucky have recognized that the KY FAME model is similar to the apprenticeship programs that have traditionally been used to train workers in Germany, Menke said, and they are currently working with the German Chamber of Commerce in Chicago to dual-certify the program.
The efforts to expand KY FAME have been made possible through a strong partnering effort on behalf of industry, government, and education, said Dianne Leveridge, director of technical programs for the Kentucky Community and Technical College System and KY FAME board member.
“We are expanding the model because it’s proven,” Leveridge said. “It’s a whole diff erent educational model from what we’ve done before, and it works.”
Leveridge said part of her mission is to help the state’s community college system embrace this new model of education, and the accompanying increased level of partnership with industry. Down the road, Leveridge said, this model could also be modified to serve not only the wider workforce needs of advanced manufacturing, but also other Kentucky-based industries as well.
“These graduates are going to be the local global workforce, at least in manufacturing and maintenance,” Leveridge said. “... The second arm of the mission with KY FAME is to take the model and apply it to other positions within the manufacturing sector, and other sectors within our economy.”
More information on the KY FAME program is available online at the organization’s website, www.kyfame.com.
Training a high-tech workforce
To become a high-caliber worker in today’s advanced manufacturingindustry, students need to developmore than just technical acumen. KY FAME is designed to emphasize three essential elements of job performance:
Technical knowledge: The technical knowledge associated with advanced manufacturing, such as fluid power, fabrication and robotics.
Manufacturing culture: An understanding of manufacturing industry culture, including such issues as workplace safety concerns and group problem-solving abilities.
‘Soft skills’: The “soft skills” of workplace behavior and expectations, such as punctuality and attendance.
Source: Kim Menke, manager of external affairs and government affairs for Toyota Motor Engineering and Manufacturing North America, and a member of KY FAME’s board of directors.