Officials with Vincennes University last week inked a deal with two northern Indiana organizations to bridge a state-wide skills gap between education and employment opportunities in the manufacturing industry.
Starting this semester, Subaru of Indiana Automotive and the Purdue College of Technology, both located in the Greater Lafayette area, will afford some VU students a chance to participate in an internship program combining the classroom education with real-world work experience.
VU president Dick Helton said the SIA Advanced Internship in Manufacturing program extends the university’s reach in the workforce while providing a unique blend of experience for students.
“From our perspective, this provides a way for us to be involved in addressing the skills gap our state currently has and it allows us an opportunity to collaborate with two world-class organizations,” he said. “But the real winners in this partnership actually become our students, and that’s what this is all about.”
Students selected to participate in the SIA AIM program will start the cooperative at VU, studying advanced manufacturing technologies already in place in electrical controls, robotics, mechanical systems, programmable logic controllers, hydraulics and pneumatics, Helton explained.
“We actually already have SIA students enrolled in our program right now, they’ve been selected and they will now proceed,” he said. “And the program will only continue to grow while providing the students an opportunity with which they’ll be better prepared to strengthen our state’s economic future, and that will benefit all Hoosiers.”
The following semester, students will work and take classes at the SIA manufacturing plant in Lafayette. Students will take classes at Purdue University twice a week and apply the technologies at work the next three days.
Upon completion of the SIA AIM program, graduates will qualify for full-time employment at SIA. After six months of employment, graduates can then continue education at the Purdue College of Technology Lafayette SIA site and earn a bachelor’s degree in engineering technology, paid for by SIA.
Purdue has had a cooperative partnership with SIA in place for more than 25 years. The new program is an extension of the long-standing relationship, with both partners choosing VU to advance the program as result of the school’s nation-wide reputation in advanced manufacturing education.
Vincennes University already has in place a comparable partnership with Toyota Motor Manufacturing Indiana at Fort Branch and has recently signed on seven more manufacturing organizations in Jasper.
Helton said the university is also in negotiation with at least three more communities in Indiana with comparable programs.
“We continue to see growth in our students through immersing them into the industry,” he explained. “They’re getting the experiential opportunities with hands-on experience with a manufacturing partner and they’re able to also seek the classroom opportunities that will afford them that well-rounded education.”
All three organizations, he said, will be able to proceed with the internship partnership without need for additional brick and mortar while increasing necessary staff members only minimally in an effort to keep higher education accessible and affordable.