Boot Camps Help Educators Learn About Manufacturing Career Paths
Whirlpool Corporation hosts outreach programs to educators
Some of Whirlpool Corp.’s plant operations recently held outreach programs to help educators learn more about manufacturing and careers in the field. One of these programs, the “Putnam County Educator Boot Camp,” was held in Ottawa, Ohio and was attended by elementary, middle and high school teachers and counselors. Attendees were given a tour with presentations by plant leadership, as well as some “hands on” experience.
“We had a fantastic event at Ottawa Operations,” said Communications Lead Kelsi Hashbarger. “We showed the group several real life examples of people who have built their careers at our plant, and that was a huge hit with the educators.”
A similar program at the company’s Marion Operations was the product of a joint effort between Marion Technical College, Ohio State University (Marion branch) and Ashland University.
“There was a group of around 17 teachers and each participant could earn three graduate credit hours through the program,” said Manufacturing Specialist Tracy Schilling, who helped to coordinate the visit by the teachers as they toured a half dozen different manufacturing facilities in the region.
“The basic goal of the whole program was to introduce teachers to manufacturing with the intent of them passing this information down to their students and being able to answer questions about careers in manufacturing,” said Schilling. “We received great feedback from several of the attendees who were surprised at how clean, modern and high tech the facility was, and that we provided educational reimbursement. Based on the success of this session, we are already planning to take part in the program again.”
Whirlpool Corp.’s nine U.S. plants employ approximately 15,000 people, with 10,000 of those working at five plants in the state of Ohio.
