NFPA Speakers Bureau Brings University Students and Industry Together

One thing that gets the NFPA workforce development staff excited is when we can connect our members to innovative students. The more NFPA members can meet with students and share their experiences and all of the opportunities that are available in the fluid power industry, the closer we get to helping solve the workforce shortage.

The goal of all of our workforce programs is to help increase the number of technical college and university students educated in fluid power and connect them to careers in the fluid power industry. The new NFPA Speakers Bureau program does this by directly connecting NFPA members to fluid power and mechanical engineering university classrooms. Participating NFPA members visit their local university and talk to students, especially in mechanical engineering programs, about fluid power and the career possibilities. Preparing for your visit is easy – NFPA can provide a draft presentation template as well as many different resources for you to have when you visit, and we will work with you and the university to help coordinate the visit.

Right now, we have four Speakers Bureau events scheduled: Kaman Fluid Power and Bimba Manufacturing Company at Purdue University, Womack Machine Supply Company at Oklahoma State and PARTSolutions at George Fox University. Many thanks to all of these companies and their volunteers.

Efforts like this not only get more students aware of and excited about careers in fluid power, but can also make recruitment easier for the companies involved.

If you’re interested in being a part of the Speakers Bureau, have university contacts you’d like to share, or would like further information, please contact Carrie Tatman Schwartz at ctschwartz@nfpa.com.