Lima Engineering Grant
As an excellent example of community, industry, and educational partnership, the City of Lima, Ohio, received a grant to develop a process engineering workforce program for Lima and Allen County. The grant, from the U.S. Department of Labor Economic Development Administration, awarded two educational facilities the resources to align workforce skills with chemical and process operation companies' labor demand.
The article below is from the January-February-March, 2010 publication of Lima's Our Commmunity newsletter.
The article below is from the January-February-March, 2010 publication of Lima's Our Commmunity newsletter.
Grant Gives Lima an Engineering Boost
Rhodes State and Apollo Career Center join forces for education
In March 2009, Rhodes State College and Apollo Career Center were awarded a $215,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Labor Economic Development Administration through the City of Lima. The purpose of the grant is to develop a process engineering workforce program for Lima and Allen County.
Allen County has a concentration of chemical and process operations that includes at least twenty-one companies that employ more than 4,000 workers and generate $9 billion in annual sales. Newly-hired employees of most of these companies undergo extensive on-the-job training before being allowed to perform jobs without constant supervision. Several companies require hundreds of hours of training annually for incumbent workers, as well. Two of the objectives of the process operator program created from this grant will be to develop a population of persons with proper process operator training to reduce their burden of training new hires and provide a source of training for incumbent workers.
In order to determine the curriculum for this program, a survey of Allen County process operating companies was conducted last spring. Fifteen of the 21 companies targeted were surveyed. Companies that participated in the survey were invited to a meeting at Rhodes State College to view composite results of the survey, receive their company’s survey results, and view the proposed program that includes modifying the Apollo basic program, creating an intermediate pathway certificate from the West Central Ohio Manufacturing Consortium (WCOMC) and an Associate of Technical Studies (ATS) degree from Rhodes State College. Following a discussion with the stakeholders, the proposed curriculum was accepted.
As a means of creating a pool of students for the new program, a series of orientations was held in August in which participants learned about the new program, heard from process operator employees on the demands of their jobs and were tested on their math and reading skills.
Fifteen Lima city residents were offered seats for the Apollo course along with another five outof- city-residents. Lima city residents qualified for scholarship money under the grant that paid for costs of the Apollo course.
The grant also provides scholarship money for Lima residents pursuing intermediate certification. Other students qualified for Pell grants, Workforce Investment Act, veterans or other workforce training money to pay for costs.
Twenty students successfully completed the Apollo program in December, some of whom plan to pursue the intermediate certificate or associate’s degree under the new program. Other qualified persons began taking courses toward an intermediate certificate or an ATS degree at Rhodes State College during the fall quarter. Their paths are coming from different directions, but in the end, they will become a growing population of advanced trained workers to meet the demands of the Lima and Allen County’s process operator workforce.
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