In celebration of Manufacturing Month-here’s an exciting opportunity to help start your career in manufacturing.

Moraine Park is helping combat the skilled worker shortage by providing skill development through the Manufacturing Skills Academy.

This program, also known as manufacturing boot camps, offers the opportunity to explore a unique career pathway. The manufacturing boot camp is a 3-month training program in either CNC Machining or welding. During the program, you are part of a paid internship with a local employer. This means you’ll be paid while you learn! At the end of the program, you’ll have a college certificate and, in most cases, the opportunity to turn your internship into a full-time career.

Your first step toward your new career begins at our information sessions this November– offered both in-person and online. Here, you’ll learn about each career, meet the instructors and get the next step enrollment information.

One more great feature, Moraine Park’s boot camp programs are tuition-free. The tuition and materials costs are covered completely by grants and community support.

No previous manufacturing experience is necessary and there are no income limitations.

So, what are you waiting for? Space in the program is limited- sign up for your information session today to get started!

Information sessions are on Nov. 9 at the Fond du Lac campus and Nov. 17 online. Registration is required and information can be found here.

More information on Moraine Park’s boot camps can be found here.

Moraine Park Technical College has selected the Department of Corrections- Taycheedah Correctional Institution (TCI), as the recipient of the 2020 Innovation award. The College’s Economic and Workforce Development (EWD) presents five Business and Industry partnership awards each fiscal year; Excellence in Partnership, Employer of the Year, Innovation, New Partner of the Year, and Workforce Development Champion.

The Innovation Award is given to an organization that implemented an innovative solution to a workforce challenge. Jason Lederhaus, education director at TCI, continuously promotes educational opportunities for the incarcerated women at their facility. Lederhaus continued to advocate for the women in the welding cohort when COVID-19 created many restrictions and created a plan to allow them to safely complete their welding program. Additionally, the welding program became approved as a pre-apprenticeship program with Department of Workforce Development (DWD). Lederhaus has advocated for two new programs at TCI. These innovative solutions create real opportunities to enter the workforce in high demand fields upon release from TCI. The College recognized TCI and Lederhaus during a small gathering at TCI in late May.

For more information on Moraine Park, visit morainepark.edu.

Are you aware that over one-third of households in WI struggle to afford basic necessities?*

Moraine Park Technical College is excited to host national speakers, Terie Dreussi-Smith and Ruth Weirich, from aha! Process, Inc., to help bridge the gap and provide a better understanding of poverty in our communities and workplaces to assist with retention, productivity, and engagement in entry-level workers. This two-day summit will be held on March 12 and 13 from 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. The event will consist of a Bridges out of Poverty and Workplace Stability workshop to learn how to achieve workplace stability for entry-level employee retention and performance. These sessions will help us recognize the signs of poverty and the range of factors that create instability for our employees, and see how instability, employee performance, and profitability are related.

Employers have come to understand diversity in terms of age, race, and gender – now they need to understand it in terms of socioeconomic class. The income and resource gap is a growing divide in workplace culture, causing missed opportunities from miscommunications to separations, as well as lost productivity, promotion, and profit.
“Viewing a diverse workforce through the lens of economic class allows a company to create more stability for team members and for the business, which results in higher retention, higher productivity, more engagement, and increased profits.” – Ruth K. Weirich, Workplace Stability, p. 129

Did you also know that 27% of households in the MPTC district fall below the ALICE level? ALICE stands for Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed; it’s a way for defining men and women who work hard, earn above the federal poverty level, but still not enough to afford a basic household budget.*

With that being said, are you aware of the hidden rules, culture, and range of factors that contribute to the instabilities in poverty? Workplace instability issues have an impact on employee retention and performance across all industries. We are hoping these sessions will raise awareness and give you the tools to provide open lines of communication with your employees, ultimately creating higher employee retention.

Bridges out of Poverty will use the lens of economic class to provide concrete tools and strategies for a community to alleviate poverty.  The Bridges out of Poverty and Workplace Stability sessions will provide tools and strategies for you to:

• Recognize the signs of poverty
• Understand the culture of poverty
• Recognize the range of factors that create instability for employees
• See how instability, employee performance and profitability are related

Event details:
March 12 & 13, 2019
8:30 a.m. – 3:30 p.m.
Thelma Sadoff Center for the Arts
Fond du Lac, WI

For more information or to register for this event, visit http://bit.ly/bridgesmptc . 

*www.unitedforalice.org/wisconsin

Moraine Park Technical College held its seventh Strategy, Alignment, Talent
(STRAT) 2.0 program graduation ceremony on December 12, 2018, at the Fond du Lac campus.

The STRAT 2.0 program was developed by Moraine Park’s Economic and Workforce Development division and goes beyond the typical training –  integrating feedback, stretch assignments, experiential learning and one-on-one coaching to accelerate individual performance. Individuals are sponsored by their employers and organizations to participate in cross-functional development linking strategy and execution to achieve measureable results within their organizations.  Through the program, students participate in workshops, networking events, professional coaching and self-assessments to reinforce application of key concepts to enhance individual and organizational effectiveness.

STRAT teaches participants how to make big-picture management decisions and helps them develop self-awareness as a leader that improve their company’s performance. A local executive sponsor indicated, “STRAT teaches participants how to deal with today’s issues and prepare for tomorrow’s challenges. You need to look at how to put out today’s fires while preventing them in the future.” The program supports companies with their succession planning strategy and developing their talent pipeline for the next level of executives.

The STRAT 2018 participants included Kelly Weninger, Human Resources Manager at A&W Iron & Metal, Inc.; Shannon Neu, RN Manager at Beaver Dam Community Hospital; Briana Wagner, Strategic Projects Manager at Grande Cheese; Megan Pea, Deposit Operations Officer at Horicon Bank; Christopher Stath, Director of Purchasing and Sales at Sadoff Iron & Metal Company; and Oliver Vogel, IT Administrator at Spring Valley (not pictured).

Registration is currently in process for the 2019 STRAT session. To register, call 1-800-472-4554 ext. 3449. For more information on the STRAT program visit morainepark.edu/strat.

The Moraine Park Technical College Economic and Workforce Development Department is pleased to welcome Mindie Boynton as a new Business Representative.  Her role as Business Representative is to consult with businesses and other organizations to identify skills gaps of their employees, develop a plan to close those gaps, and then execute the appropriate training.  Her goal is to help businesses become more competitive and profitable, and organizations to become more effective and efficient by helping their employees acquire new skills or improve their existing skills.

Mindie comes to MPTC from UW Oshkosh, where she was the Director of the Growth Management Academy and also an Outreach Program Manager for the past 6 years. She also served as a coach and mentor to students participating in the Sales Emphasis program through the UW Oshkosh College of Business. Prior to that, Mindie spent the past 10 years in private sector sales and marketing roles.

Mindie earned her Bachelor’s degree from UW Milwaukee. She is a Certified Program Planner (CPP) and is licensed in social & behavioral research.

She has served on many regional committees and boards to include the Northeast Wisconsin Manufacturing Alliance task force, Northeast Wisconsin IT alliance committee, Oshkosh Chamber marketing committee, Propel steering committee, and Women in Management, past president.

She enjoys spending time with her husband, two sons and French bulldog. They enjoy spending time on the lake, live music, traveling and all things outdoors.

“I am excited to be a part of the EWD team that is developing talent and tackling important workforce challenges that impact our region and beyond. I am passionate about developing meaningful relationships, helping businesses achieve their goals by connecting them with resources to be successful.”

For more information, visit www.morainepark.edu/gateways/business-and-industry/.

The Moraine Park Technical College Economic and Workforce Development Department is pleased to welcome Doug Holmes in his new position as Business Representative.

As Holmes put it, “My role is to consult with businesses and other organizations to identify skill gaps of their employees, develop a plan to close those gaps, and then execute the appropriate training. I help businesses become more competitive and profitable, and organizations more effective and efficient by helping their employees acquire new skills or improve their existing skills. The need for organizations to invest in their employees through training has never been more critical to success than in today’s rapidly changing world.  It’s important and it’s why I love what I do.” Continue reading

Moraine Park welcomed area business leaders on Nov. 11 to a complimentary forum to discuss how employee engagement can impact their business.  Over 50 participants, representing 23 companies, had an opportunity to hear from three panel presenters as they shared their journey and philosophy on employee engagement.  In addition to the Q & A, attendees had an opportunity to network as they discussed best practice techniques, challenges and action steps they can apply at their respective organizations. Continue reading

Skills Gap in Manufacturing

Manufacturing companies have realized there is a significant gap between the talent they need to continue to grow their business, and the talent they can actually find. Here in Fond du Lac, Mercury Marine has run into this problem, and is working with Moraine Park Technical College to address these issues. The company has lost a lot of “tribal knowledge” due to retirements and they realized the need to improve the skills of their current employees. Continue reading