Milwaukee's MATC to Train Students in Advanced Manufacturing

Erica Perez:

A three-year, $2 million grant from the U.S. Department of Labor will allow the Milwaukee Area Technical College to recruit and train 1,600 workers in five areas of advanced manufacturing where local businesses are projected to have critical shortages.

The money also will help MATC build a more strategic career-planning system, said Duane Schultz, associate dean in the division of technology and applied sciences for MATC. The goal: to anticipate earlier what jobs will be available locally and train students in those areas.

MATC surveyed about 30 local companies, including Master Lock, General Automotive Manufacturing and Rockwell Automation. In all, they said they would have roughly 1,745 openings in the next three years for computer numeric control machinists, welders and fabricators, maintenance technicians, quality inspectors and production manufacturing technicians.

Average entry-level wages for these jobs range from $11 to $15 an hour.

"We targeted our (program) around manufacturing because it's such a strong part of the southeast Wisconsin job base," said John Stilp, vice president of MATC's Mequon campus.

Posted by Jim Zellmer at January 17, 2007 6:51 AM
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