Sinclair360

In late fall 2009, Sinclair Community College’s Workforce Development & Corporate Services partnered with the Montgomery County Department of Job & Family Services and the National Composite Center to create a Composites Technician training program with input from regional composites employers. Targeted at increasing employment opportunities for displaced workers, this program was selected based on market data that highlighted the need for job-ready, skilled individuals to meet the growing composites industry’s labor requirements.

 Funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, the comprehensive Composites Technician training program has so far provided 100 displaced workers with classroom instruction, hands-on equipment training and on-the-job training with local composites manufacturers.

 Among the individuals aided by the training is Karole “KC” Wilson, a single mother of two. Unemployed since February 2009, Wilson found employment with Prosthetic Design, Inc., the company at which she received her on-the-job training. “I don’t know what I would have done if Prosthetic Design had not hired me,” stated Wilson. She enjoys “making something from scratch and seeing it finished.” Wilson also likes that the product she now supports helps people, an attribute important to her in her personal career goals.

 Engaging a market- and data-driven approach to create needed skills training has proven to be a successful workforce strategy. Within 30 days of program completion, 23 percent of the displaced workers who completed the inaugural Composites Technician training secured employment.

By Donna Hoying

Donna Hoying is manager of Advanced Engineering and Manufacturing Solutions at Sinclair, where she oversees the Advanced Integrated Manufacturing Center and Workforce Development & Corporate Services noncredit programs for emerging technologies and manufacturing. She has extensive experience as a LEAN consultant and received her industrial engineering degree from Purdue University.