by Eric Lanke
NFPA CEO
Our funding application for FAMTEC continues to move forward. If successful, funding through the Advanced Technological Education (ATE) program of the National Science Foundation (NSF) will be awarded and launch a nationwide network of technical and community colleges that provide education and produce qualified candidates for the technical workforce needs of the fluid power industry. We have alerted you to our ongoing work in this area before, most recently seeking commitments from community colleges and industry partners with sincere interest in supporting this activity.
As of this writing, five technical colleges have submitted these letters of commitment:
· College of Central Florida in Osala, FL
· Hennepin Technical College in Eden Prairie, MN
· Ivy Tech Community College in Muncie, IN
· Kirkwood Community College in Cedar Rapids, IA
· Texas State Technical College in Waco, TX
Now, in order to help determine which of these schools represent solid potential for development within the FAMTEC proposal, we want to determine the strength of the fluid power industry network surrounding each school. Several NFPA industry members have already submitted their own letters of commitment, expressing their willingness to engage in high school outreach and the hiring of graduates from schools within the FAMTEC program. To generate a more complete picture, we’ve also done a geographic analysis of NFPA industry members based on the information in our database. That information, however, is limited to company headquarter locations.
We are therefore asking every NFPA member with a facility where technically trained people are employed and that is located within 300 miles of one of the five schools shown above to let us know that fact as soon as possible. We’re going to use that information to decide where to focus our attention, so making sure we are accounting for all relevant industry facilities is critical. Please respond and direct questions to Eric Lanke at elanke@nfpa.com.
As we have stated before, this is a major new initiative for NFPA but, if successful, it has the potential to profoundly improve the quality of the fluid power technical workforce in the United States. Thank you, one and all, for your consideration.
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