Nikki Dahlke is the new Recruitment and Advising Specialist for the boot camps in the Economic and Workforce Development Department. In her role, she will actively recruit students interested in participating in the short term manufacturing boot camps as well as support the current students attending them.

She comes to MPTC from a collaborative program between Goodwill Industries and Fox Valley Technical College where she was a Financial Coach for the Oshkosh FVTC students doing 1-1 financial counseling as well as classroom workshops to teach money management. Prior to that she worked at Fox Cities Habitat for Humanity for 4 years as the Family Services Coordinator and is still involved there as the Chair of their Family Selection Committee.

Nikki has spent her career working in non-profit case management and is looking forward to the opportunity to use those skills to help support students’ success at MPTC.

Nikki earned her Bachelors’ degrees from UW River Falls in Communicative Disorders and in Spanish. She is fully bilingual in Spanish and taught English in Mexico for a few years following college. She enjoys traveling to places off the beaten path and spending time with her husband and son.

“I am excited to continue to make a difference in the community by helping remove barriers to employment. These boot camps provide an incredible opportunity for students to gain skills, knowledge, and connections to a workplace through the internship. I look forward to working with the MPTC family in giving a hand up to people through these manufacturing boot camps.”

Interested in learning more about our boot camp opportunities, visit
https://www.morainepark.edu/services/business-and-industry/bootcamp/ .

Alex Bertram didn’t really need to find something new. He spent his days at his job at a car wash, and he was okay with it. Then his mom started talking about boot camps, and then his girlfriend started talking about boot camps, and suddenly he started thinking about boot camps as something he should actually do. “I’ve been washing cars for the past two years,” said Bertram, “and I just think I was going nowhere. I got a dollar raise in a year of working there. Now that I’m here I feel like I’m always moving forward. I’m always learning something. There are so many opportunities that I have with this thing and it’s free. You get paid. You get a job – well, you could get a job, you have the opportunity to go get that for yourself.”
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Cole Strassman is going to be a welder. In fact, it seems he already is, and probably what he would have been if he had never met us. The beauty of the boot camps is that it can take you where you want to go, even if you’re already on your way.
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Welding is fun for Alex Rocha, so fun, in fact, that when the end of class is called, Rocha, a Welding Boot Camp student, wants more. “When I’m done with class, I want to say, ‘Wait! I’m done already?’” and amazingly, that love of welding is only one part of what motivates him to succeed in the boot camps.

Rocha’s young daughter motivates him. The opportunity to meet new people that can teach him new skills and share life experiences motivates him. And most of all, his past motivates him: This includes a two-year incarceration that led him to our boot camps.

“I don’t mind talking about it because it’s the past. I’m here now and my future has endless possibilities because I’m here right now. That’s my motivation.”
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For Dylan Feutz, hard work has always been the easy part. When he graduated from high school in 2011, he chose the low-cost path. “The only reason I never went to college after high school is because I didn’t want to pay for it,” said Feutz, “I just planned on just working hard and making money.” Over the years in the workforce, he’s held jobs in food service and manufacturing, but something drove him to want more.
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We are off to another successful start for our CNC & Welding Boot Camps! With week 3 of our 22nd boot camp in the books, we are excited to see where the 15 new CNC and welding recruits will go!

Most of you may not know that it’s common for participants to come into these boot camps with little or no experience in their chosen field.  So they spend the first couple weeks getting their feet wet and learning the ins and outs of their new trade.
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The next installment in our Boot Camps: The Student View series brings us to the welding boot camp. For the welding boot camp students, classes have been running for about a month, and their internship experiences are just beginning.
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Manufacturing boot camps have become a staple at Moraine Park over the last four years and continue to keep going strong.  Throughout those four years, we’ve promoted our Manufacturing Skills Academies for their job placement rates and life-changing stories – and we’ll continue to do so. But there’s more to it than that.
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