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Employer Quotes

The quotes below are from employers in this industry: Engineering

They are talking about this topic: Educational Partnerships

 

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The quotes below are about this issue:
Industry leaders state it is important for businesses and higher education to create K-12 partnerships, which ensure children are educated about the engineering industry and engineering careers. Many employers are already participating in K-12 outreach; this includes working with the program Project Lead the Way, offering classroom presentations, and creating job-shadowing opportunities.

Employer Quote Region
"When you're talking about the future, I think the future employees are right here. They really are. They're in our schools right now. I watched as the budget cuts hit this area. Try to find a shop class today, right? They've been decimated because they were viewed as not important at that time. We had huge industrial complex teaching within the high schools. That's disappeared. It's starting to come back, but they aren't here yet. My former employer—I still remember at the Chisholm High School—he had an assembly there, and he asked the question, 'How many of you are going to go further with your education past high school?' Every hand goes up. 'If the jobs are here, how many of you are willing to come back?' Almost all the hands go up. There's only a few that say they want to leave. It's right here. And I think the challenge is going to be for MnSCU, [non-MnSCU colleges], for our school districts—and I realize that they've got this huge budget thing going on—but they need to start targeting these people. I don't know how you do it. Maybe it's a legislative change, maybe on a federal or state level." Northeast
"My impression is that higher education is great for the most part. Higher education seems to have—if we've had a need—the attitude is that they'll respond to that specific need is in terms of continuing education or whatever. My concern is getting the younger kids into higher education. That's what I'm worried about the most." Northeast
"We're seeing more and more of our entry-level positions—even our welding positions—are four-year degrees. And that's kind of a trend, you have to go to college, and you have to get a four-year degree. It doesn't matter in what. They're coming in to be a welder, and they have a computer graphics degree or something like that. That starts at home, and that starts in the schools by keeping those options, those industrial and shop classes available. But how many people in this room think that their kid should be a welder?" Northeast
"That's become the problem—every parent of a third-grader is thinking their kid's going to be Bill Gates, not a truck driver. But the kid may want to be a truck driver." Northeast
"We just put together an educational committee through the Iron Mining Association. And one of the biggest disconnects we find up here is that the educators who are teaching our kids in the grade, middle, and high schools know very little about the businesses that we have up here. Nobody understands mining. One of the things we've identified is that we've got to get into the classrooms at a very early age. And, yeah, we can talk to the students, but really the people that are with them every day are the teachers. They need to understand our business. If a question comes up where the kid says, 'You know what? I don't need this. I'm going to work in the mines,' that teacher needs to be able to address that. They have to know what type of jobs we have to offer." Northeast
"Employer 1: Maybe you want to go to college. You see all these college placement courses. Well, we should be saying, 'Hey, we've got a tour going to these companies.'
Employer 2: Yeah, when I was going to school we went on tours. And we offer tours. And we have a work-based opportunity program with the welding programs."		 Northeast
"I agree that the kids are the ones we have to connect with—and the teachers as well." Northeast
"I'd love to have an hour with the teachers when they have the workshops before the school year begins. To have an hour with them and to throw some things up on a PowerPoint presentation to share what we have, what the opportunities are, and what we're looking for." Northeast
"I was thinking about the time of the year when the teachers aren't in the classroom. Is there some type of program that you could have during the summertime where you could pay them, bring them in, and get them engaged?" Northeast
"When our kids were in school, I went in several times—just because the teacher knew what I did—and so I was asked to come in and talk about engineering and things like that. Yeah, it's good. I guess we just need to do more of that." Northeast
"Employer 1: He had several students come in, and we went through heat exchanger sizing and things like that—actually on two different days.
Employer 2: That's good. I think that kind of thing needs to continue with all the different businesses."		 Northeast
"There are programs that are happening right now. Yesterday, we had two kids from high school that spent two days at [Company X] and then half-a-day at [Company Y]. They were both seniors and they were both going into the junior program. One company takes three or four of them, another company takes three or four, etc. So, we have some of those programs that we've started, but we're not doing enough. It's great that those kids have made the decision that they're going to go into engineering, but that isn't enough. There's a program next week where 800 seventh-graders will learn about science and engineering for two days. So, there are some of those things happening. But, again, you have to have a sustainable program. Bring the teacher in and invite them on a tour through your company for an hour or whatever." Northeast
"I think you're right that the teachers are the ones that are going to help drive the students into this area. And one of the things that the school that I was part of before—what they did in the summertime—they had a program with a manufacturing company. They brought some teachers in to work part of the summer. They did technical writing and reading and did work on the manuals, for instance. They also did teach-ins with the people of the company on how to do presentations, because that's what teachers do best. They're presenters. Maybe supporting sustainability is in having those types of programs in the schools. And the companies could help build that for us, for the future." Northeast
"Up here on the Range there's a Project Lead the Way Engineering Program. And I know you're all aware of that. [A MnSCU university] is the affiliate university for that. In fact, I'm one of the people that sort of manages those programs. I would strongly suggest, as industry representatives, that you find out more about it. Support it if you don't already. But support it in any way you can. That's a good pipeline feed for some of these students going into engineering.

The second piece is that there are some marvelous summer camps that are offered up here for students. I think there are some other camps that are offered up here in the summer, as well, that would welcome industry involvement in those summer camps. There's a great deal that you could do with those students.

And, talking with folks up here about expanding on that concept of a teachers' summer camp—I'm getting all kinds of ideas as to what we can do."		 Northeast
"Six months ago, we did a little presentation for some high school kids. At that time, we did a random survey of openings, and I think we had 40 or 50 openings in northern Minnesota. We just wanted to give the kids a feel for those openings and opportunities." Northeast
"The supply and demand thing is the big deal right now. My personal thinking is that we need to get to the kids as early as the sixth, seventh, or eighth grade. We need to get them interested in the field of engineering, at least expose them to it. We also need to get them to understand what it is that we do up here now. It's different than what it was 30 years ago." Northeast
"We need to get students exposed to engineering and excited about going into engineering. Because if we do, then they are the ones that hopefully will come back." Northeast