Jabil's learning center is out to fill the education gap

Technology is evolving at a rapid pace: It increases efficiency, specialization, collaboration and opportunity.

To keep up with the ever-changing technology and plastics landscape, Jabil Plastics Technology Learning Center of Clinton, Mass., is open to students, employees, customers and suppliers for online and on-site manufacturing training and learning.

Initially named Nypro ​ University, the Jabil Learning Center was founded in 1979 by Gordon Lankton, founder of Nypro Inc., which was acquired by Jabil Circuit Inc. for $665 million in 2013.

"Back at that time, the industry was growing and there was a gap in talent. Rather than go out and recruit and try to find this talent and be competitive — competitively recruiting with other companies — Gordon thought it would be good to teach internally," said Bruce Witts, senior director of the Jabil Plastics Technology Learning Center.

"The key events that happened in that time is, from 1979, the first 10 or 12 years, it was more or less an internal learning center, more of an on-the-job training, if you will. Then, when it branched out, what took us external was the relationship with Fitchburg [State University in Fitchburg, Mass.]," Witts said.

The partnership between the Jabil Plastics Technology Learning Center and Fitchburg State University works as "a satellite learning center, specifically instruction in plastics technology," according to Witts. The course materials and instruction are held by Jabil, while the registration and credits are held by Fitchburg.

The University of Massachusetts–Lowell heard about the program and thought it was "pretty revolutionary," Witts said, so it wanted to become academic partners. The partnerships with the universities "took us more of an external reach and took us toward academic credits," he said.

"Nypro was actually a plastics partner and actually a fairly significant supplier for about 60 years. We were in the electronics space, in the medical space, then branched into the plastics packaging not too long ago — early 2000s," said Christine McDermott, chief marketing officer for Jabil Packaging Solutions. "At the end of the day, the business recognized the need for us to support the development of talent in the space because the universities were not turning out resources that were sufficient to meet the needs of the fairly complex industry."

Education is done in a live or virtual classroom for "certification prep courses, professional development and continuing education units, success factors alignment, videos and 'how-to' help links," according to the Learning Center's information page on Jabil's website.

Classes run in the spring and fall semesters, 15 weeks each. Witts said they prefer to maintain a minimum class size of 10 people, with a maximum of about 30 people.

The website adds: "Students can train across programs (for example, Master Molder / Product and Program Management / NPI) or align to a single course curriculum such as Master Molder (all levels and disciplines). Further, the Learning Center is committed to adding powerful new course offerings in IoT, enabling students to stay current with the rapidly-changing plastics landscape." Master Molder is an RJG Inc. training program.

When Jabil Learning Center graduate Orlando Acero moved from Ecuador to the United States in 1992, his brother was working at Nypro and introduced Acero to the plastics industry. He attended then-Nypro University, where classes were "strictly as it related to my career," but he said he didn't originally intend on receiving a degree.

"I like electronics, and I had to take an electrical class. I like using blueprints, and I took a class in that. At the beginning, I wasn't looking to get a degree or anything like that, but just because I was interested in different fields and things like that, I'd say after a year of having the courses here, somebody actually said if you take two more classes, you'd get your Plastics [Technology] certificate," he said. "After that, it was like, if you take another six credits, you can get your associate [degree] and things like that. That's how my life started."

Acero, who now works at Nypro Healthcare, even attended another Jabil Learning Center class earlier this year.

"The best thing I noticed — I actually stopped taking classes, right, but I ended up taking a class about three weeks ago — and the best thing I can think how to describe the new classes is the technology that they use now, compared to years ago, is like day and night," Acero said during a phone call in May. "I even talked to my instructor and said I love the fact that you guys have the machines right there. They have the nice, fancy boards. Everything is touchscreen now. To me, that's one of the best things: the technology they use to show you and present the context of the classes."

From students through adults in continuing education, the Learning Center is open to all different ages and education levels. Students generally pay for their classes themselves. Witts said companies will oftentimes front the costs for their adult employees who choose to take courses.

The Jabil Learning Center can work with companies and organizations to develop custom courses for their employees. Such courses include program management, decoration, assembly, statistical process control, blueprint reading, technical leadership and more.

According to the Jabil Learning Center website, companies that utilize the program "enhance plastic solutions for improved customer satisfaction and achieve improved brand loyalty; gain competitive advantages in all operational facets; optimize staff morale by committing to professional development; speed time-to-market, improve quality and lower costs; and receive ongoing support for continuous improvement."

Paul Kuchinski, senior manufacturing engineer at PPG Industries, studied industrial engineering at California Polytechnic State University–San Luis Obispo. Through the help of PPG and Jabil, Kuchinski took the Master Molder I course for two weeks in February 2017.

"It's tough to get two weeks out of your normal work environment, but luckily the management here realized the valuable training of how that was going to help me in my current position just do a better job at what I'm doing," he said.

Kuchinski praised his instructor, Chris Lillyman, and the curriculum mix of book work and hands-on instruction.

"My favorite part about it was the instructors: the colorful personalities, the guys that have been there in the industry for longer than probably I have been alive who know the ins and outs, that can really share their experiences of problems they run into out in the industry," he said. "Learning how to operate a press is one thing, but sharing the experience of what went wrong — how did we fix it, don't do that, do this, do that — those are the kinds of invaluable learning lessons that normally take years to understand."

The courses went online with the University of Massachusetts–Lowell in the early 2000s but "wasn't able to sustain itself," Witts said.

"Since it has changed from Nypro to the Jabil Learning Center, we are online. … We have gone online again, in a different way, through Fitchburg State and with our own homegrown program," Witts said.

"It does feel like the market is more receptive to online learning than they were in the early 2000s. It's really becoming much more mainstream these days," McDermott said.

"The way we are promoting it, the way we are marketing it, it is less confusing. I think it has a clearer message than what we were trying to do back then," Witts added to McDermott's statement.

With the courses available back online, the Jabil Plastics Technology Learning Center is looking to further develop and grow.

"We recognize that we are a global company, and as enrollment goes, we want to reach into other regions. And we have," Witts said. "We do get global enrollment. We can see that as that rises, a program like this makes sense to expand."

McDermott added: "We are introducing courses, very customized courses, according to the needs of our customers and other participants. In fact, [Witts] just returned from Spain … where he was teaching a course for some of our food and beverage customers. We actually have a Learning Center in Tortosa, Spain, which is a tremendous value-add to the university because we can teach our customers in other parts of the world."

Witts said the Learning Center is especially important because understanding the plastics industry and its different processes is more complex than what an internet search can provide.

"I think what we're finding is the industry is changing. There's an influx of new people in the industry put into a rather complex environment — plastics injection molding is not easy — and in a lot of cases, they're just put into that environment, but they don't fully understand the basics," Witts said. "What we're finding is this is very receptive because what most people will do is try to search it on the internet, and to me, that's just soundbites. You learn a little here, you learn a little there, but you don't know how it fits into the whole environment. That's what we try to do: We try to take them through all the elements of the manufacturing process and give them a strong overview."

Tim Bachelder was a truck driver before working as a technician at Thomas & Betts Corp., where he learned about an opportunity to further his education and ultimately move him into better positions at the company. Bachelder, who now works as a quality engineering manager at NP Medical Inc., received his certificate from the Jabil Learning Center more than 20 years ago.

Bachelder said four members of his team who report to him now are signed up for the injection molding course.

"What I really loved was that the instructors, if you had a question and they didn't have the answer, they would come back the next class with an answer," he said. "I absolutely loved the knowledge that they brought to each course. It was very exciting. Knowing that you were being listened to, it felt nice."

Bachelder said he would "definitely recommend" the courses to anyone "who is getting into the field or wants to move up in the field."

Throughout its many years of educating and training, the Jabil Plastics Technology Learning Center has reached more than 2,000 students.

"I feel like this is a uniquely differentiated offering for an injection mold company. ... Certainly, there are apprenticeship programs and other types of learning that are being offered by companies like ours, but our courses extend to customers and really add value in the industry because they allow us to expand the competency and confidence of the staff of key customers," McDermott said.

"We support some of the biggest brands in the world, from food and beverage to consumer health to CPG and commercial and industrial," she added. "These are all customers that have a requirement to understanding the unique and complex requirements of injection molding, and this offering really does help them to advance their own needs in their own businesses in a very unique way."