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Camp Machining: Summer Program Will Mix Recreation With Learning Manufacturing

Posted on: Monday, 6 March 2006, 03:01 CST

By Rick Barrett, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Mar. 6--It's not quite "welding around the campfire," but a new summer camp will give kids a taste of manufacturing jobs while also offering archery, canoeing, storytelling and other traditional camp activities.

Sponsored Moraine Park Technical College and YMCA Camp Matawa, the camp is supposed to help address the problem of not enough youth being interested in manufacturing careers. The problem could become severe as baboomers prepare to retire, leaving thousands of jobs vacant.

In a recent Deloitte Consulting survey of more than 800 manufacturers, 81% of the respondents said they were short of workers overall, with 13% already calling the shortage severe. Ninety percent reported shortages of qualified production workers, including front-line workers such as machinists and operators.

That must change, said Marcia Arndt, Moraine Park's dean of manufacturing technology.

"We really want to get young people excited about these career fields," she said. "We think manufacturing has gotten kind of a bad rap, especially after layoffs in the last few years."

The camp, July 16-21, is for youth ages 12 to 16. It will be one of the first of its kind in the nation, according to Fabricators & Manufacturers Association International, a Rockford, Ill., trade group that's provided a $4,700 grant for the camp.

Every day, about 18 campers will get hands-on experience with welding, machining, 3-D design programs and more while making actual products at the college's West Bend campus. The camp's final day wraps up with industry tours, and every day includes traditional outdoor recreation at YMCA Camp Matawa, about 45 minutes north of Milwaukee.

"We have broken it up so that campers won't spend more than a few hours at any one task" at the college, Arndt said about the technical sessions. "There's a lot of variety, including the tours."

Campers will design a project and produce it in vocational labs.

"I am hoping it's exciting for them," Arndt said. "I know when I was a kid, I liked being able to make things."

The college's Applied Manufacturing Technology Center has a plethora of factory machines used students pursuing technical education certificates and two-year degrees. The center, in West Bend, has an interest in getting more students into those programs.

"One of our big challenges is changing the mind-set of parents and students" that manufacturing jobs don't have much of a future, Arndt said. "Once people come here and see what we have to offer, and see what it's like out there in industry, they will walk away with a different impression."

A prototype for the manufacturing camp was tested two years ago Fabricators & Manufacturers Association and a Rockford group called Women of Today's Manufacturing. That camp, in Rockford, gave 10 teenagers exposure to computer-assisted drafting and factory machines. Participants also were given a ride to factory tours in a Humvee limousine.

"There was such strong demand from the first camp that we started an advanced version of it," said Terry Egan, director of the charitable foundation of Fabricators & Manufacturers Association.

"Parents called from all over the country wanting to send their kids to Rockford," he said.

This year, the trade association is offering start-up grants to about six manufacturing camps. 2008, it plans to have 50 camps operating nationwide.

"We are trying to connect with students at a younger age," Egan said. "We have offered scholarships in these areas, but not enough students have applied for them."

Factories need shop-floor employees with hybrid skills -- from handling a wrench to running computer software.

For many companies, finding qualified workers is just as important as investing in new machines. It's all tied together because one mistake in the production process can ruin everything.

But from its peak in 1999, Wisconsin manufacturing employment has dropped more than 95,000 jobs, or about 16% -- not the sort of fact you put on a recruiting poster. Factory losses in the four-county Milwaukee area have been even more dramatic, declining 20% in the same period.

The factory jobs aren't just fleeing offshore to low-wage countries. Some are losing out to technology and improved productivity.

But Wisconsin manufacturing isn't dying. It's just changing, said Dale Dulberger, director of the 21st-century education project at Milwaukee Area Technical College.

Today's manufacturing jobs are more about "lab coats and clean floors," than dirty, uninviting factories of years ago, according to Dulberger.

"Parents, as well as students, need to get a feel for what the modern manufacturing environment looks like," he said. "It makes sense to reach kids as early as possible, to give them a feel for the technological world through hands-on experience. There's going to be a huge number of job opportunities" as the baboomers retire.

One company that participated in the Rockford camp has followed the campers' progress since then and offered internships. The Rockford company, Woodward Governor, designs and manufactures components for aircraft and industrial engines and turbines.

"We are working with a highly technical product," said company spokeswoman Rose Briani-Bruden. "It's in our best interest to create a bigger pool of qualified job applicants."

Cost of the Moraine Park camp is $500 per student, and financial assistance is available. Campers will stay in YMCA cabins.

"I think there's a thrill that goes with making something," Arndt said. "We want these students to see that manufacturing can be exciting."

For more information, contact Moraine Park Technical College at (262) 334-3413 or YMCA Camp Matawa at (262) 626-2149.

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Copyright (c) 2006, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

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Source: The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

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