Future Machinist Sponsorship Program

Thaddeus Stevens College of Technology is launching the Future Machinist Sponsorship Program.  Much like a scholarship, the program is designed so that companies will provide $1000 to incoming freshman for college expenses.  Where the program differs is that it not only helps students with expenses but it will assist companies in attracting skilled employees that are in big demand.

Because companies are experiencing an increased difficulty in recruiting skilled workers in the machining industry,  the Future Machinist Sponsorship Program was created to help bridge the gap between high school students and manufacturing companies.  The program will assist the college in its recruiting efforts while assisting participating companies by introducing them to motivated young-adults.

Students will apply for the sponsorships and will be interviewed by the relative company.  Once the selection process is over, companies will take steps to make the sponsored students feel as though they are part of that company.  Providing students with company work uniforms and including students in safety meetings and other company gatherings are just some of the options discussed by various participating companies. 

In a time when student loan debt and unemployment rates fill the airwaves and the front pages, the Future Machinist Sponsorship Program will be guaranteeing high paying jobs after just one year of college.  At under $15,000, two years at Thaddeus Stevens College of Technology is relatively inexpensive especially when you consider that the placement rate in the Machine Tool and C.A.M. program is consistently 100%. Now that the Machine Tool and C.A.M. program is striving to place incoming freshman before they even attend class, it becomes harder to ignore the opportunity that the machining trades offer.

    

2014 SCHOOL YEAR COMES TO AN END

The school year ended on May 10th as Thaddeus Stevens College celebrated its 103rd graduation ceremony with the Machine Tool Technology program granting 16 degrees.  This marked the end of a very busy year for the Machine Tool program and the beginning of an exciting future.

Students Andrew Spencer and Maddeline Lennox talk with Rob McCord.

2014 was a year in which allot things were put in motion that will help insure the future success of the Machine Tool program at Thaddeus Stevens College of Technology.  Two new initiatives, which are designed to help with recruiting and to increase company/employer involvement, were implemented this year.  The first program is a formal internship that allows students to work for college credit and the second program is called The Future Machinist Program.  The latter is designed so that companies will sponsor incoming students before they even attend class at the college.  This program is very much like a scholarship with the exception that the sponsoring companies will provide the sponsored students with summer employment after the freshman year and many will provide work uniforms bearing their company logo that the students will wear while working in the shop at  school.

During the past school year we were also awarded a grant that is allowing us to purchase four new CNC machines.  We will be adding two Haas SL-10 lathes, with live tooling, and two Haas Mini-mills.  We are optimistic that these machines will be in place and ready for the upcoming fall semester.

During the month of May we received the attention of some very important people in Harrisburg.  Rob McCord, the State Treasurer and gubernatorial candidate, visited the program space on May 1st.  He spoke with students and was given one of our shop t-shirts as a token of our appreciation for future support.  Not to be outdone, Governor Tom Corbett sent representatives to campus to interview college president Bill Griscom and to tour the Machine Tool lab.  Video footage was taken of students in the lab and will appear in an upcoming video.  As a side note, the Machine Tool program was the only program visited by Mr. McCord and Gov. Corbett's team and we're proud to admit it.

The summer months will be spent preparing for the upcoming school year.  This will be the largest incoming class in the history of our program with fifty freshman scheduled attend.  Along with the second year students, this will bring the program enrollment to seventy.  It will be a short summer.