By Henry Shorr
A concerted effort in Youngstown is starting to grow to ensure education on additive manufacturing stays up to date with the many opportunities for students in the Mahoning Valley.
America Makes, a Youngstown-based organization, is fostering relationships between interested parties in the industry and helping schools plan their programming based on additive manufacturing.
Founded in 2012 as the Department of Defense’s national manufacturing innovation institute, America Makes is a combination of different developmental creations related to the 3D printing process where an object is created by adding layers over a period of time.
“America Makes members from industry, academia, government, workforce and economic development organizations, work together to accelerate the adoption of [additive manufacturing] and the nation’s global manufacturing competitiveness,” according to the America Makes website.
Josh Cramer, America Makes’ director of education and workforce development, has been on the front lines of the fight to keep education current with the quickly growing industry.
He said there is a focus on both upskilling the current workforce, as well as making sure secondary and post-secondary education stays on pace with the ever-advancing industry.
“In doing both of those facets of training and education, we look at the criticality of those roles, you know, that are maybe hampering the adoption of additives, or the mass need, which is we just need a lot of this position, a lot of that position,” Cramer said.
Cramer also said training workers who may specialize in industries that additive manufacturing is eclipsing is a major priority. He explained the importance of teaching these workers “competency adjacencies.”
“[We’re] making sure that there’s an adjacency of the knowledge, skills or abilities where it would help them transition to any manufacturing job in the advanced technology realm,” Cramer said. “So when you look at things like … blueprint reading, or you know, design and [computer-aided design] work, if you look at things like qualification certification inspection; when you look at those types of things that are very big and needed in the additive structured sector, they’re also really needed across the entire advanced manufacturing sector.”
These re-skilling programs go hand-in-hand with other programs to train adults. Cramer said it’s important America Makes reaches out to underserved communities to offer these opportunities to under-represented people who may not have had a conversation about these jobs, let alone the training to fill these roles.
Cramer attributed Youngstown State University’s engineering program as a great jumping-off point in the industry. YSU works closely with America Makes as a partnership, and with the universities Department of Workforce Education and Innovation. A good first step for those looking at the field is reaching out to America Makes.
“You know, we have kind of a saying around our education and workforce team, which is, ‘We will always be here for every learner, how they learn and where they learn,’” Cramer said. “We have a number of training options that come to America Makes because we are local in the ecosystem as well.”
Conversations about the need for the DWEI started after the Lordstown auto-manufacturing plant closed. David Janofa, director of the DWEI, explained the role the division will play in connecting the university’s students to emergent additive manufacturing companies.
“[The Youngstown Business Incubator], America Makes, [The National Center for Defense Manufacturing], all of us are partnering essentially to improve, upskill and reskill folks in the Valley so that when these opportunities arise — such as Ultium Cell [LLC], Foxconn and then all the other supportive businesses around will need to fill to have some sort of a network of suppliers — we’re able to provide training skilling to provide a workforce for these companies that will not only fill our current needs but also attract you know, potential future employers,” Janofa said.
Jackie Ruller, director of the Excellence Training Center, said he is excited to see partnerships with the ETC help students find their footing in this emergent industry.
“One [thing we do] is we hire [students]. So, we would really like this to be a student-run center. So, we’re working towards that. What I mean by that is we would like our student employees to be kind of ambassadors for us,” Ruller said. “We train the current students … so they can then go out onto campus and talk amongst their peers about what we’re doing here and hopefully represent us and encourage others to participate with us.”
ETC’s Kohli Hall is now home to first-year engineering students. It offers robotics classes, certifications for industrial work like welding and other opportunities for students, such as working with a new Mazak printer.For more information, visit the YSU website and search for the DWEI or the ETC.