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MVMC updates members on career path recommendations, grants
By Kalea Hall
canfield
There’s a need for machinists and welders who are job-ready when they come out of the schooling of their choice.
But there could be some parts missing in the career pathway that prevents them from getting the job.
To help with this, the Mahoning Valley Manufacturers Coalition developed machine and career-pathway improvement recommendations.
“There has been a lot of work put into that to help figure out what improvements are needed within curriculum and to address what is missing in the career pathway,” said Jessica A. Borza, executive director of MVMC.
MVMC members heard an update on the project at the quarterly meeting Friday at the Mahoning County Career and Technical Center.
A team of people from the coalition visited manufacturers to find out what credentials are needed for specific positions. The team also visited machine programs throughout the Mahoning Valley and in Mercer and Lawrence counties.
Next, the team will look at welding. Machining was first because that is where the biggest gap lies, Borza said.
“And it is our highest priority,” she said. “There is not enough supply in that area.”
The MVMC will meet with career centers to find out when it is doable to refine their curriculum. The Trumbull County Career and Technical Center already has started to implement some of the recommendations.
Also during the meeting, the coalition announced it will find out the results of a $50,000 state grant application by the end of February. The grant was submitted by the city of Youngstown through the Development Services Agency of Ohio on behalf of the MVMC, Youngstown State University, Eastern Gateway Community College and the local career centers.
The grant would fund a feasibility study to give an idea of the costs associated with the project and the best options for manufacturing lab locations for the educational institutions to share.
“We envision it being a shared space that will look like a manufacturing facility,” Borza said. “It will include multiple manufacturing disciplines, so eventually we can see engineering students designing a part and handing over the design work to produce the part and them all working together on capstone projects.”
The lab would allow for the multiple educational institutions involved to share the expense of costly manufacturing equipment, said Martin Abraham, YSU’s interim provost. Abraham is the founding dean of the College of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics at YSU.
“You can come together to achieve some things that you can’t do independently,” he said. “We want to work together to beat other regions and other states.”