New charter school focuses on plastics technology

As molding companies struggle with finding skilled employees, a group in Port Huron, MI has found an answer to that dilemma in the form of a charter school.

The Academy for Plastics Manufacturing Technology was founded two years ago as part of the St. Clair County Technical Education Center, also a charter school. It had six students the first year. This year, it is near capacity with 38 high school juniors and seniors in the program.

Two professionals staff the program: Fred Stanley is director and Marilyn Carrier, who has a degree in chemical engineering, is the instructor. The board of directors represents names that are familiar in the plastics industry: Blue Water Plastics, Huron Plastics, Pine River Plastics, and Mohawk Plastics. The Academy hopes to add two new board members, from Huntsman Corp. and Wertz Manufacturing.

Support has come from a wide segment of the plastics industry both locally and nationally. Stanley says that in addition to the molding machine the school had, Huntsman donated two presses and a chiller, formerly used to manufacture test plaques for Huntsman. Now, the students at the Academy will mold those plaques for Huntsman.

Also, Van Dorn Demag is placing two new molding presses at the school on consignment. Dana Corp. is donating two pick-and- place robots, and Paulson Training Programs recently donated CD-ROMs for training purposes. "We've been really fortunate this year," says Stanley of the donations.

Starting the Academy wasn't easy. Stanley worked with Carl Haas, president of Blue Water, and others in the plastics community for about four years to make the school a reality. Approximately 50 people from local Port Huron plastics companies and a former director of the plastics program at Ferris State volunteered to serve on committees to formulate the Academy's curriculum and shape the structure of the program. They then applied for Charter School certification and five months later, opened the doors.

The two-year program is work-based learning geared to prepare students for a wide variety of careers in the plastics industry with an eye toward high-skill, high-wage placements, explains Stanley.

In the first section, which teaches the basics, students learn what a molding machine is, machine operation, fundamentals of processing, statistical process control, blueprint reading, statistical mathematics, and team building.

The second year, students learn advanced processing, tooling, machine maintenance, and quality assurance. Summer internships are available at local plastics plants where students can participate in various job functions, from processing and engineering to marketing and sales activities.

The Academy has partnered with St. Clair Community College, which has a two-year plastics processing technology program, to allow for further education. Cindy Eschenburg, assistant director of human resources at Blue Water Plastics, says that Blue Water was the first molder to write a certified apprenticeship program for molding process technicians, but ran into problems finding people qualified to become apprentices without "a lot of remediation."

Working at the college level led to the discovery that there wasn't a good feeder system in place to direct students on a path leading to the program. The Academy is meant to provide that feeder system to the community college level and beyond.

Huron's president Art Goodsel says that changing attitudes about industry and the types of careers it offers is one of the goals of the Academy. "High schools were not encouraging students to go into industry," he says. Thanks to the efforts of the four plastics companies, those attitudes are changing. "We're beginning to turn the tide, and it's exciting," says Goodsel. "Counselors are now willing to tell students that industry isn't a bad place to go."

The board is hoping to expand program offerings even further. Given the importance of moldmaking, a machining class is currently being offered and the group has decided to offer a full-blown moldmaking program.

Goodsel says, "We're here for one purpose - to get people to find a career in the plastics industry." Eschenburg says that she hopes others in the plastics industry across the country can take advantage of the curriculum the group is developing and establish similar programs. "Everyone has a common goal, and we need to network so we don't duplicate efforts," she says.

For more on the Academy, call Terry Harrington or Fred Stanley at (810) 364-8990, or Cindy Eschenburg at (810) 364-4550.