March 10, 2009

Purdue, Vincennes help dislocated workers seize training ops

The Manufacturing Extension Partnership Center, administered by Purdue, is working with Vincennes University and The Apprentice Academy to offer technical training and advanced manufacturing instruction to RV and other displaced workers in Elkhart, Knox, Nappanee, Plymouth, Rochester, South Bend, Warsaw and surrounding communities.

The universities also are teaming with other training providers to offer job fairs. Sponsored by WorkOne of Northern Indiana, fairs will be offered from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. on:

* Thursday (March 12) at the Ivy Tech Community College, 2521 Industrial Parkway, Elkhart

* March 19 at the Knox Community Center, 55 Easter Lake St., Knox

* March 26 at the Ivy Tech Community College South Bend, 220 Dean Johnson Blvd., South Bend

* April 2 at Christo's Banquet Center, 830 Lincolnway East, Plymouth

"These fairs provide a one-stop shop for workers who want to explore the variety of training choices available," said Dietra Rosenkoetter, MEP senior account manager. "They also can learn how to get funding."

Classes will take 10-12 weeks to complete. The training is supported by $13 million in state and federal grants.

Classes currently offered through the Purdue/Vincennes partnership include industrial maintenance training, precision metalworking and welding. Purdue also has announced new certificate classes that include:

* Six Sigma green belt training, a quality management method to reduce errors in the manufacturing process

* Lean manufacturing training, a production practice to maximize efficiency (basic and advanced training)

* Continuous improvement training

The improvement training class will feature:

* Failure mode and effects analysis, a procedure to analyze potential manufacturing failures

* Gage R&R, an analysis technique to determine the amount of variability that comes from a measurement system (gage repeatability and reproducibility)

* Problem solving, an incremental process improvement system that is data driven

For more information about the training program, contact The Apprentice Academy at 574-234-5918, or e-mail Wheeler at Suzanne@taain.org

Writer: Marydell Forbes, (765) 496-7704, mforbes@purdue.edu

Source: Dietra Rosenkoetter, (317) 275-6812, dietra@purdue.edu

Purdue News Service: (765) 494-2096; purduenews@purdue.edu

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