Career Pathways & Dual Enrollment

The future looks brighter for students at Pontiac High School {PHS) since their school was accepted into the SME PRIME {Partnership Response in Manufacturing Education) program.

Located in an industrial Detroit suburb that suffers from the lingering effects of mid-2000s auto plant closings, PHS received a PRIME grant that allowed it to create new manufacturing career pathways and purchase state-of-the-art equipment a 
three-piece Festo Meclab, two Festo Didactic AC/DC Training Systems, a Festo Hydraulics Training System, a Festo Industrial Controls Trainer, a Verisurf CMM, a Stratasys 3D printer, two Haas Desktop mills and two additional Haas Control Simulators, a Snap-on PMI kit, and a variety of hand and power tools from Starrett, 
Snap-on and other providers. The school's affiliation with PRIME began with a 2019 kickoff meeting that included representatives of PHS's industry partners 
-Mahindra, Irvin Products, Fanuc America and Williams International. The project is funded by Flagstar Bank, the Ralph C. Wilson Jr. Foundation and the Community Foundation for Southeast Michigan.

According to Justin Brantley, manufacturing instructor at PHS, the group came up with a Iii of skills they thought entry-level manufacturing employees should have -then rated the importance of those skills according to the initial needs faced by PHS's industry partners "We used that as a guide to work with Toolln9 U-SME to create the curriculum for our school says Brantley, noting that the current curriculum includes CAD/CAM, additive manufacturing and industrial maintenance. At PHS, each PRIME program features a tiered rollout of information and technology. For example, ninth-grade students in the industrial maintenance program start off \ear about safety and regulations. In the 10th and 11th grades, they work with AC/DC motors, fluid powering systems, and bearings and seals, and will soon perform tasks such as welding, grinding, machining, fabricating and electronic circuitry. In 12th grade, students have more leeway in their studies. Plus, they are provided with opportunities to become involved in co-op programs or internships and can also earn an SME Education Foundation Scholarship - leading to, as Brantley puts it, "a nicedirect pipeline from what they're learning in school to when they're going into the workforce." When it comes to jobs, Brantley says 
the school's industrial maintenance program focuses on preparing students 
for careers in regular maintenance and/or production of industrial machinery. 
Students in the CAD/CAM program, on the other hand, are likely to go into automotive engineering or regular parts manufacturing. Wherever PHS's students end up going, the PRIME program is designed to help them get there. "It's potentially giving them a lifeline and a direct route to a higher income level that they might not have seen around here in quite some time," says Brantley. "The sky's the limit." 

This article has been condensed. Read the full article at smeef.orglprime.