The leaders at Custom Rubber Corp. were inspired by
Cardinal Manufacturing to do something to help our local schools rebuild the pipeline into manufacturing and techology careers that was decimated over the last 20-30 years. During a tour of Cardinal Manufacturing, the following questions were asked;
Are you a Zombie - Are you doing anything to address the skills gap?
1. Have you visited your school Superintendent in the past year?
2. Has the High School Principal toured your business?
3. Are you on a first name basis with the Tech-ed Teacher(s)?
4. Has an employee presented in a classroom within the last year?
5. Has your company donated equipment, supplies, $$ to education?
Custom Rubber Corp. failed this test completely, and has been actively engaging with the community to turn things around. We are working on two major initiatives;
a)
Rebuilding Curriculum: Work with one local High School,
Shaker Heights High, to begin to put in place the modern curriculum that will offer targeted post-high school options for students.
b)
Manufacturing Day Tours: Make every day "National Manfuaturing Day" by hosting monthly plant tours for High School students.
Rebuilding Curriculum
Our first objective is to build momentum, maintain focus, and push Shaker Heights High to rebuild career-technology curriculum - with the ultimate goal of creating Raider Manfuacturing. Raider Manufacturing is envisioned as a student led and managed manufacturing company inside the high school. A company that delivers some sort of product (machined parts, welded parts, stamped parts, tbd...) to actual customers, similar to Cardinal Manufacturing.
We have been working with the administration, guidance counselors, science teachers, and others to build momentum and excitement around new curriculum that can offer career pathways to students. It's a long process that started with some basic understanding of the Ohio Department of Education requirements for Graduation and has led to discussions of increased certification offerings and curriculum development for new courses.
Manufacturing Day Tours
Our stated goal is to host one tour a month in order to expose High School students to modern manufacturing. In order to make this possible, and given most high school classes are 20-28 students (too many for an in depth tour), Custom Rubber Corp. reached out to other manufacturing companies in the area and began forming a consortium of other manufacturing companies that are all within a few blocks of our building. Each member of the consortium has committed to host one tour a month. **
With the consortium in place, High Schools can bring an entire class on a tour day, drop 1/2 off at Custom Rubber Corp. and 1/2 off at another company for 1 hour tours - and then the classes can switch locations. In the end, the whole class gets to see two different manufacturing companies in one field trip.
Exposure to modern manufacturing is one of the easiest and quickest thing any company can do to begin to engage with the community and build the next generation of manufacturing employees.
If you are interested in scheduling a Manufacturing Day tour, please contact Sarah Divakarla at
[email protected].
** Members of the consortium currently include:
Sifco Forge
General Metal Heat Treating
Novagard Solutions
Horsburgh and Scott