Ten monitors will be placed in public areas – one each at the five Champaign County high schools; in the villages of Mechanicsburg, North Lewisburg and St. Paris; Urbana University; and Ohio Hi-Point. The monitors will be installed beginning in late August. Content shown on the monitors will be generated by the CEP.
Urbana University and Ohio Hi-Point Career Center are providing funds to purchase the monitors and associated equipment, while DP&L and FASTLANE are assisting with funding for ongoing media service to broadcast content on the monitors. CEP Director Marcia Bailey added that Berry Digital Solutions is helping the CEP manage the project and that Weidmann Electrical Technology Inc. funded the original monitor at the CEP. The purpose, she said, is to inform students and other county residents about local career opportunities and education and training available to prepare students for the workforce “I’m a strong believer in the education-workforce ecosystem. And the CEP is leading the way to organizing education and employers, preparing talent to meet the needs of our employers,” said Christopher Washington, executive vice president and CEO of Urbana University, a branch campus of Franklin University. The monitors are the ideal way to deliver the information, he adds. “Kids today are digitally wired and pay attention to what’s on the screen.” Kelsey Webb, Ohio Hi-Point director of communications and marketing, said, “We’re participating because this is completely in our wheelhouse to prepare students for career or college. We’re excited to help spread the message that there are great opportunities here for students.”
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Szklany says ORBIS will benefit from Zizzo’s internship. “We’ll have a new employee who has the skills we need to succeed and who understands our culture.” He adds, smiling, “and has new ideas to bring to the plant.”
Zizzo came to ORBIS endorsed by Todd Bodey, who teaches Ohio Hi-Point Career Center’s Advanced Manufacturing program, which began at Triad High School in 2015, at the start of Zizzo’s junior year. Before going into education, Bodey worked for a variety of companies, including Honeywell Aerospace in Urbana, so he knows what manufacturers look for in employees. Advanced manufacturing program The Advanced Manufacturing program at Triad is a product of a manufacturing workforce partnership formed by the Champaign Economic Partnership (CEP), Champaign County’s economic development agency. The CEP worked with local manufacturers to form the Champaign County Manufacturing Human Resources Council. Local schools have also been brought into the partnership to help find ways to prepare students for skilled jobs that manufacturers are having difficulty filling. Debbie Wortman, Ohio Hi-Point’s satellite director, got involved in the partnership. She said that representatives of local manufacturers told her, “We really need to do something to create a more prepared workforce. This can’t wait.” And that’s how the Triad Advanced Manufacturing program came to be. Zizzo is the second Triad Advanced Manufacturing student to intern with a local manufacturer. Kaleb Kaylor interned at the Hall Company in Urbana in the summer of 2016, after graduating from Triad and before beginning studies at Wright State University. Bodey said 52 students are enrolled this school year in the three courses offered in the Advanced Manufacturing program – Manufacturing Operations for first-year students, Computer Integrated Manufacturing for second-year students and CNC Technologies for third-year students. Next school year, the fourth year of the program, Robotics will be added to the curriculum. And the program includes introductory classes for middle school students. Many Advanced Manufacturing students will go directly from high school to manufacturing jobs, while others like Zizzo and Kaylor will obtain additional training and education. Additional successes Champaign County’s manufacturing workforce partnership has been promoting manufacturing careers in additional ways that include:
Part of the challenge in preparing a new generation for manufacturing careers, Szklany said, is helping students and their parents “understand that modern manufacturing is a great place to build a career, and plants are driving innovation. We’ve got great, talented employees who are working with new kinds of technology all the time.” “It’s not factory work,” adds Zizzo, who has been working in machine maintenance and programming CNC machines at ORBIS. And when he graduates from Clark State, he’ll have two career paths to choose from at ORBIS, Szklany said: preventive machine maintenance or engineering/project management. Marcia Bailey, director of the Champaign Economic Partnership, said that manufacturing jobs can provide a good living. “The Dayton Development Coalition just reported that annual manufacturing salaries in Champaign County are averaging $64,000 in the third quarter of 2017.” Employers from Champaign and four neighboring counties are encouraged to complete an online employee benefits survey June 5-24. The survey is part of a wage and benefit study that will help employers in the participating counties benchmark their wages and benefits against county and regional averages. The study also will provide useful data to promote economic development. Employers who complete the survey will be the first to receive a summary of the final study report in September, Marcia Bailey, director of the Champaign Economic Partnership, said. The report also will include wage data for Champaign, Clark, Logan, Madison and Union Counties. The Dayton Development Coalition will provide the wage data, which is collected regularly by Economic Modeling Specialists Inc., a consulting firm that supports workforce and economic development efforts. Employers that do not complete the survey will not have access to the final report until January 2018. Read more about the survey in the Urbana Daily Citizen.
The Champaign Economic Partnership certainly enjoyed a great evening at the Champaign County Chamber of Commerce Annual Dinner. It was an evening of great food and quality time spent with our community. Thank you to everyone that stopped by our expo table to learn more about the Champaign Economic Partnership and economic development projects in our community. We also enjoyed sharing news about Community JobConnect, a new site to find jobs available in Champaign County. It's also a free job board for Champaign County businesses to post the job openings. If you haven't visited the new site, please do so at www.CommunityJobConnect.com. (Pictured) Jill O'Neal of WEIDMANN Electrical Technology and Nancee Starkey of Bundy Baking Solutions currently have jobs posted on the new website www.CommunityJobConnect.com - Check it out! Champaign County employers and job seekers will have an easier experience posting and finding local jobs, thanks to a new Champaign County-exclusive job site, Community JobConnect.
In addition to simplifying local job posting and searching, the free-to-use site will help inform local schools and students about the range of local career opportunities – so students will be able to prepare for life after graduation. By connecting local employers, job seekers, schools and students, Community JobConnect will strengthen Champaign County’s economic development efforts, says Marcia Bailey, director of the Champaign Economic Partnership (CEP). “Community JobConnect further emphasizes our message that Champaign County is open for business,” she said. She added that the job site is the product of efforts by local organizations – the CEP Board of Directors, the Champaign County Manufacturers Human Resources Council, local schools and other partners – to coordinate economic development and workforce development initiatives. “Community JobConnect makes the connection between economic and workforce development. Businesses choose to establish or expand in communities that have the available workforce to help them succeed and grow,” she said. “Community JobConnect is a clear sign that Champaign County is ready to help businesses find the employees they need.” Set to launch March 18th, Community JobConnect will be featured on the home page of the CEP website, CEPOhio.com. While Community JobConnect is for all types of businesses and jobs, the site was created in answer to concerns expressed in meetings of human resources managers and executives of Champaign County manufacturing companies. How Community JobConnect was Created “One of the chief concerns shared at these meetings is how to attract and retain local talent for manufacturing jobs, which are often difficult to fill,” explained Jill O’Neal, human resources manager at WEIDMANN Electrical Technology, Inc. in Urbana. O’Neal approached Ashlie Starkey, human resources information systems (HRIS) and compliance manager at WEIDMANN, about the need for a local job site. Starkey told her, “I think we can make this on our own,” and began developing Community JobConnect. Starkey and O’Neal created the site on their own time, which they donated. How to Use Community JobConnect Employers and job seekers can set up free accounts on Community JobConnect to access all the site’s interactive features, Bailey said. Employers can: Set up a profile for their business with logo Post part- and full-time job listings and descriptions Post internships, summer jobs and job shadowing opportunities to help students prepare for the workforce in Champaign County – and stay in Champaign County after graduation. Accept applications and resumes from registered job seekers who reply to job listings Search the job site database for uploaded resumes that match their needs Job seekers can: Set up a profile Search the site for jobs that meet their interests and qualifications Sign up to receive notifications of new jobs that meet their criteria Apply online for jobs posted on the site Upload their resume to submit with online applications Use Community JobConnect’s resume creation tool if they don’t already have a resume Bailey said that Community JobConnect will make finding local jobs much easier, as it will include only Champaign County job listings. “This gives job seekers immediate access to jobs available in our local community.” Jobs posted on Community JobConnect will also appear on the Community JobConnect Facebook page and on the site’s Twitter account, @CommunityJobCon. The CEP will host public meetings over the next few weeks to train employers and job seekers on how to use this new community job board. For more information, contact [email protected] or call the CEP office at (937) 653-7200. |
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