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Training and employment opportunities abound for machinists
By Kalea Hall
Last of a two-part series
YOUNGSTOWN
Former salesman Ted Ohlin was looking for a career change.
The 49-year-old Champion resident decided to take the machining route and enrolled at Trumbull Career and Technical Center.
He heard there was a need for machinists and decided to help answer that.
“I just want to have concrete skills that keep me employable,” Ohlin said. “This will give me security until I am ready to retire down the road.”
TCTC is just one of the schools in the area offering machining courses and working with local skilled workforce developers to bring in new workers.
The TCTC program Ohlin is in offers five National Institute for Metalworking Skills credentials, which is what employers like to see. TCTC has worked closely with the Mahoning Valley Manufacturers Coalition since its inception. The trade school worked to build up its curriculum and agreed to offer a 900-hour machining program that included an internship program and more NIMS credentials.
“They wanted to be able to see the students in action,” said Vicki Thompson, adult education director at TCTC.
Bob Lidle is the industrial training coordinator for TCTC and oversees various programs at the school including machining.
On a basic afternoon in the classroom, many of the students will huddle around a table working math problems to develop a product shape.
“We are requiring some real brainpower,” Lidle said.
MORE DEMAND
Cole Huebner, 24, of Hiram is another student in the machining class at TCTC who is working his way up to be a journeyman machinist, which basically is equivalent to an undergraduate degree.
Huebner chose machining because he knew there were jobs.
“There’s a lot of need for it,” he said. “The demand is going up as [workers] retire. Almost every factory needs them.”
Huebner was working the presses at a plant, and then a position opened up in the tool and die shop.
“It’s more money; it’s a future; it’s bettering myself,” he said.
It’s also fun.
“You learn something new every day,” he said. “You have to work through every step before you attempt it.”
Mahoning County Career and Technical Center’s machining program is also a 900-hour program.
“We always try to improve on certification,” said Rebecca Harris, adult education coordinator at MCCTC.
Harris and others work to improve the program, but it is difficult to fill the classes. The class that starts Sept. 21 at MCCTC is still in need of students.
“There is still the perception that college is the only answer,” Harris said.
Larry McDevitt is the head machining instructor at MCCTC and a semi-retired machinist. He said that when the students leave his classroom, they can walk right into any shop and be ready to work.
“Our job placement is about 100 percent,” he said.
The students, both welders and machinists, learn about blueprints first. After that, the welders start to weld and the machinists start to work on manual machines and then the CNC (computer numerical control) machines, and they keep moving up. Manufacturers aren’t looking for someone just to push a button to make a product.
“True manufacturing facilities want you to understand the background,” McDevitt said.
FILLING CLASSROOMS
Eastern Gateway Community College also found it difficult to fill the classroom for its new machining program. In fact, the machining class that was to start this fall had to be canceled because just one person signed up. More advertising will be done to help fill the next class.
“We will try again in January,” said Jerry Klinesmith, dean of business, engineering and information technologies at Eastern Gateway. “We want to support the industry partners in the Youngstown area.”
Youngstown State University also is in on working with local industry. Leaders at the higher-education institution are looking at how they can translate a student’s experience to classroom credit.
“The idea is that a person who has worked as a machinist for 10 years has a certain set of skills and capabilities, so [he/she] shouldn’t be starting at zero to say if they want to get an engineering technology degree,” said Martin Abraham, provost and vice president of academic affairs and former dean of the Science, Technology, Engineering and Math school at YSU. “We have to come up with a way to give them credit.”
YSU also is looking at adding a manufacturing engineer bachelor’s degree to its offerings. This degree would allow the student to know enough about the parts and materials being produced to design the programs that will design those parts.
“This is something we have looked at very seriously over the last year or two,” Abraham said.
For more information on training providers in the area, go to industryneedsyou.com