Nov. 4, 2022 - Festo Didactic Learning Systems North America and its partners gathered at a private event today to announce new plans for the Mechatronics Apprenticeship Program (MAP) . The event was hosted by Festo at its Regional Service Center (RSC) in Mason with industry, education and government coming together under the same roof to strengthen workforce development for Industry 4.0 careers. Guest speakers included representatives from the Lt.
Governor’s office and ApprenticeOhio , and the event was attended by local manufacturing companies as well as former and current apprentices. “Festo’s side of the apprenticeship provided an affordable, unique, hands-on approach to learning mechatronics. This program taught me the very basics of electrical power up to advanced industrial troubleshooting,” said former Festo Didactic Apprentice, Kenneth Bibb. “I was able to gain more learning and experience with Festo than I would have in a traditional four-year university.
Festo has set my life up perfectly by providing the skills I needed through the apprenticeship to begin a successful Mechatronics Engineering career.” The award-winning mechatronics program has been a growing collaboration among Art Metal Group, Clippard Instruments, E-Beam, MQ Automation, Nestlé, Festo Didactic and others. At its core, MAP supports manufacturers locally and nationally in training and retaining skilled workers. Heading into its sixth year, MAP will begin accepting apprenticeships on a rolling admission basis instead of a semester schedule. The program will consist of 57 weeks of training instead of five semesters.
This transition will allow for more apprentices to enroll faster, train faster, and get to work faster. “Ohio currently ranks third nationally for the number of apprentices and first in the Midwest,” said Lt. Governor Jon Husted. “As employers are facing pressing workforce challenges, they are increasingly turning to apprenticeships to find talent and students are finding the earn-while-you-learn model without racking up student loan debt very rewarding.
It’s a win-win.” In January 2020, Governor Mike DeWine signed a bill into law earmarking $17.5 million per year for businesses that pay for employees to upgrade their technology skills. Through Ohio’s TechCred program , the state will reimburse up to $2,000 per employee and up to $30,000 per employer when a company pays for a current or prospective employee to earn an industry-recognized credential in technology-focused programs like MAP. The next TechCred application opens on November 1, 2022 and will close on November 30, 2022 at 3:00pm EST.
Nationwide, apprenticeship continues to experience strong growth . On Sept. 1, 2022 the White House launched the Apprenticeship Ambassador Initiative —a national network of more than 200 employers and other organizations who signed on to create almost 500 hundred new registered apprenticeship programs. Through the new federal initiative, companies agreed to build new programs across a wide range of industries and to hire 10,000 new apprentices in the coming year. The Department of Labor also announced plans to invest over $330 million through grants to states, employers, labor organizations, and workforce intermediaries to expand and diversify Registered Apprenticeships.
According to apprenticeship.gov , managed by the Department of Labor, 93% of apprentices who complete an apprenticeship retain employment, with an average annual salary of $77,000. By DoL’s definition, “Apprenticeship is an industry-driven, high-quality career pathway where employers can develop and prepare their future workforce, and individuals can obtain paid work experience, classroom instruction, and a portable, nationally-recognized credential.” Additionally, DoL case studies have shown that pre-apprenticeship and apprenticeship programs can attract more diverse candidates, including women and people of color, and increase employment of disabled workers.
“Manufacturing workers must be tech savvy with well-rounded skills in today’s industrial job market,” said Tony Oran (pictured above on the right), Vice President of Festo Didactic North America. “It used to be that coding and software design knowledge were skill sets mainly associated with office jobs but now they’re an integral part of modern factory life. With some of the most exciting innovation in advanced manufacturing taking place here in Ohio, our job, along with our partners in industry, education and government is to remove obstacles and introduce students to these promising career pathways.” At the Festo Learning Center, a full-scale Industry 4.0 Experience Center is also in the works.
The new center and showroom is aimed at closing the STEM skills gap by bringing technical education, industrial applications and actual manufacturing all under one roof. The Experience Center will house the latest in Festo technology from networked cyber-physical stations to factory robots, assembly components, supply chain innovation and more. Educators, students and workers at all levels are encouraged to visit and speak with Festo experts about career programs, learning solutions and workforce development for industrial companies and the classroom alike. Classes will be held at Festo’s Regional Service Center, a 47-acre state-of-the-art logistics and manufacturing plant that provides automation technology serving all of North America.
The plant opened in 2015 and is among the 15 largest employers in Mason. The RSC serves as the home base for Festo’s Learning Center. MAP launched in 2016, and four years later it earned the Best in Ohio Business Award in the Workforce Development Program category.
About MAP & Festo Didactic
Festo ’s Mechatronics Apprenticeship Program (MAP) is designed to introduce individuals to modern day smart manufacturing. MAP prioritizes hands-on, experiential learning that exposes students to the wide array of advanced technologies that support modern manufacturing operations such as electricity, programming, robotics, fluid power and troubleshooting. Apprentices receive a comprehensive learning experience in the classroom with hybrid learning, then head to the lab to apply their knowledge hands-on with IIoT hardware and software systems (30% lecture and theory, 70% hands-on learning). The apprentices receive on-the-job training at their employer company four days per week, while one day per week is spent in the classroom and in the lab at Festo’s state-of-the-art training facility.
Upon completion of the program, students will receive a Department of Labor Certificate and a Certificate of Completion from Festo. Festo Didactic is committed to providing educators and employers with the hands-on training, digital coursework and blended learning solutions needed to close the STEM skills gap. Our lab equipment, curriculum and certification programs are thoughtfully designed to support various learning pathways and on-the-job training. With 4,000+ FICP certifications and 36,000 Festo-equipped educational institutions, Festo Didactic and its partners are preparing students and employees for the future of work.
