image: Associate Professor Eric Payton is part of a team of faculty at the University of Cincinnati and Cincinnati State that will help train workers for new jobs in advanced manufacturing. Here he holds a model turbine made through additive manufacturing.
Credit: Andrew Higley
The University of Cincinnati is launching a new training and internship program for workers interested in starting a new career in advanced manufacturing.
The National Science Foundation awarded a $1 million, three-year contract to UC to recruit and train nontraditional students who are interested in a job at one of the Tristate’s many advanced manufacturing businesses.
During the one-year program, participants will get training from experts in UC’s College of Engineering and Applied Science and two semester long paid internships, or practicums, at one of the participating companies.
UC hopes to recruit people with some experience in STEM or science, technology, engineering or math. Their target audience of nontraditional students includes military veterans, recent immigrants who are now American citizens and people who want to go back to work after a protracted absence to raise children or care for elderly family, but anyone can apply.
“These are nontraditional students who already have some work experience and have overcome major life events,” UC Associate Professor Ashley Paz y Puente said. She is the principal investigator for the grant who is collaborating with several other UC faculty and Cincinnati State’s Workforce Development Center.
Also leading the program are Cedrick Kwuimy and Nora Honken, both associate professor educators in UC’s engineering and computing education; Associate Professor Eric Payton in UC’s materials science; and Amy Waldbillig, vice president of workforce development for Cincinnati State.
Starting this summer, participants will get training in advanced manufacturing, engineering fundamentals and technical and professional skills. This will be followed by 15 weeks of employment in the fall at one of several participating local employers.
In the winter, the employees will report back and reflect on any issues they encountered during their employment and will receive professional development from faculty at UC and Cincinnati State. And then they will be offered a second rotation with the same or another employer in the spring.
“I am thrilled to have the chance to put this program together because I’m passionate about it,” Paz y Puente said. “There’s a certain level of anxiety about doing it well, but also an excitement about doing it at all.”
There is no cost to the workers for the training who will be paid a competitive wage during their employment, subsidized in part by the NSF funding.
The federal support will allow UC to help workers overcome other barriers to employment such as child care or transportation, Paz y Puente said.
“Our target populations often have financial concerns about participation in such programs,” she said. “So one of the objectives of the program is to help people overcome these barriers to entry.”
Now is a good time to think about a new career in advanced manufacturing. The Bureau of Labor Statistics expects advanced manufacturing to grow at a higher-than-average rate of 10% by 2028, spurred in part by government investments such as the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and the CHIPS and Science Act.
Intel Corp. is building a new microchip fabrication plant off I-71 just north of Cincinnati. And Honda Motor Co. is investing $3.5 billion into a new battery manufacturing plant with LG Energy Solution.
But more skilled workers are needed to fill these jobs, according to the National Association of Manufacturers. They estimate that as many as 2.1 million manufacturing jobs could go unfilled by 2030 because of a national skills gap.
Advanced manufacturing is just one of several growing industries in Greater Cincinnati, along with construction, health care, information technology and supply chain management, said Sean Kelley, director of the Greater Cincinnati STEM Collaborative at UC.
Procter and Gamble Co. created the collaborative in 2011 to build student skills and interest in STEM careers.
“At the end of the day, the measure of success is people getting job offers and staying in advanced manufacturing,” Kelley said.