Caption: Amanda Wiriya, manufacturing support manager for Wepco Plastics, accepted the AMBA Tooling Trailblazer Award from award sponsors Don Starkey and Glenn Starkey, Progressive Components.
It’s not always as simple as an email, however. For companies that want to become more involved in their community, the first step is calling. “The easiest way is to find a school that’s closest to you – more than likely, your employees have family that attends, helping you network from the start,” Daniels said. “The initial phone call may not go far because the schools may not know what they need; that’s our job. It’s not always an easy adventure, but it only takes one school to set the pace for others to follow.” Taking the step toward educational involvement is beneficial for both the students and manufacturers. “If we as manufacturers sit back and wait for schools to bring us the students we want for the workforce, it doesn’t do us any good,” said Daniels. “By having that involvement, we can develop programs to better fit our needs so students can learn more about what we do and if it’s something they want to pursue.”
depending on need. Over the last five to six years, Wepco has made inroads at local schools through advisory boards; tours; career days; providing equipment, materials and curriculums; internships; hiring graduating students and externships with teachers. One way to ensure students are learning the most relevant and prominent information is by teaching the teachers. With the externships, teachers have an opportunity to work for Wepco and bring the experiences back to the classrooms. “Externships are usually over summer vacation, but Connecticut even managed to have teachers get time off during the school year to spend a day working with us,” said Daniels. Wepco Plastics encourages all companies that are able to get involved with AMBA. “It provides a wonderful opportunity to network with our peers, access to a variety of resources and an opportunity to have an impact on our industry,” said Daniels. “I really appreciate that AMBA recognizes the importance of this type of work that we’re doing, and it’s one of the reasons we love being a part of it – because they focus on things like this that other trade organizations may not recognize.” n
Wepco’s involvement in its community school programs varies
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