Programs like the Fast Track/FAMTEN program are made possible in part by the generous support of industry volunteers as well as NFPA Education and Technology Foundation and Pascal Society donors. Support these efforts by making a donation.
NFPA’s Fast Track/FAMTEN program currently has two technical school hub community sites. This year we launched the second hub at Triton College in River Grove, Illinois. This hub’s fluid power career pathway includes three high schools, where NFPA brought in fluid power training equipment, and a Fluid Power Action Challenge event for middle schoolers, where 140 students participated. NFPA’s first technical school hub is Waukesha County Technical College (WCTC), located in suburban Milwaukee. This hub has seven high schools and a Fluid Power Action Challenge event that usually has at least 220 student participants. Both Triton and WCTC have a validated fluid power and mechatronics degree program. The goal of this program is to encourage students follow this education pathway, which ends in a degree from Triton or WCTC and a job at a local NFPA member company.
NFPA’s Pascal donors are an important part of this pathway. They are involved along every step, from coaching and judging teams in the middle school Action Challenge, to mentoring high school students in using the fluid power training equipment, to serving on the Advisory Boards of Triton and WCTC, providing internships to their students and promoting careers in fluid power to students all along the way.
One member who has been involved in this program said this about the benefits of participating:
“If we want to attract more of the best and brightest minds to the fluid power industry, we need to build awareness with students at an early age. It’s been really rewarding being involved with FAMTEN and working with the exceptional students and teachers in our local school districts. Interacting with them while they use the new fluid power training equipment (provided by NFPA), I’ve been able to tie what they’ve learned to practical applications like factory automation or an excavator. I’m confident that students in FAMTEN schools will be much more likely to consider careers in fluid power. None of this would have been possible without the incredible support and participation of NFPA!”
-Bill Haley, Business Development Analyst, FORCE America, Inc.
Many thanks go out to the companies that have supported this program: Deltrol Fluid Products, FORCE America, Festo, Husco, IMI Precision Engineering, Poclain, Price Engineering, QCC, and SunSource.
If you would like to get involved in the Fast Track/FAMTEN program in Wisconsin or Illinois, please contact Lynn Beyer at lbeyer@nfpa.com.
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