Manufacturing enrollment up at Ohio's Auburn Career Center

Concord Township, Ohio — A manufacturing program that includes plastics is growing at Auburn Career Center, a vocational school in northeast Ohio.

Thirty-five students are enrolled in manufacturing for the 2018-19 school year. Auburn, located in Concord Township, about 30 miles east of Cleveland, has an internship program with plastics extruder Mercury Plastics Inc. of Middlefield.

"Manufacturing can be a good career," Superintendent Brian Bontempo said in a recent interview at Auburn. "Our students can earn college credits here and get marketable skills. And our teachers know how to make their subject matter come to life."

Auburn, which serves 11 area school districts, has also worked with plastic shapes maker Cast Nylons Ltd. of Willoughby and thermoset molder and materials maker Mar-Bal Inc. of Chagrin ​ Falls. The center also last year placed an IT worker at plastics and rubber compounder Hexpol Compounding of Burton.

The school is at 90 percent capacity with 758 students, which is the highest enrollment in Auburn's 50-plus-year history in the area. High school students spend a half-day at Auburn and the rest of the day at their home schools. The manufacturing program provides training that students can use in a variety of industrial jobs.

In spite of a need for skilled labor in plastics and other manufacturing segments, Bontempo said Auburn still has to sell students on the idea of manufacturing as a career.

"There's a misconception about this type of work," he said. "People sometimes think that the jobs are dirty or not in demand so people have stepped away from them.

"We want to tell the good story that manufacturing now can be done in a clean, safe environment," Bontempo added. "There are opportunities for great careers that will allow kids to grow up and stay in northeast Ohio."

Tool and die training given at Auburn can apply to plastics technologies such as injection molding and extrusion. The school's manufacturing lab has six CNC machines and 20 CNC simulators, where students can learn CAD/CAM technology.

When students start the manufacturing program at Auburn, they often have good computer skills but need to develop in math and on the mechanical side, according to manufacturing instructor Terry Colescott.

"Manufacturing is a very competitive market right now," he said in an interview in the manufacturing area. "That's a challenge for business, but it's good for our students."

Every student who completed Auburn's manufacturing program last year already had a job lined up with an area company, school officials said.

Auburn also has about 10 adults enrolled in its adult education manufacturing program, which offers most of its courses at night. Financial aid is available to adult students. Bontempo said that most of the adult students are in their early to mid-20s and "often are people looking for a career change or for different opportunities."

In addition to manufacturing, Auburn has programs ranging from automotive technology to health care and emergency medical services. The school's culinary program allows students to operate their own restaurant on-site. Auburn also this year launched a law enforcement program and had 70 applicants for 20 spots in the class.

Auburn has no current plans to seek additional funding after a levy was defeated in November 2016. The levy, which was Auburn's first request for additional funding since 1964, would have raised more than $1.1 million for permanent improvements over a five-year period.

Earlier this year, the Lubrizol Foundation, a unit of plastics materials and lubricants maker Lubrizol Corp. of Wickliffe, Ohio, donated $50,000 to Auburn to build a storage building on the property to house a fire truck, rescue ambulance and other safety equipment.

Industrial firm Swagelok Co. of Solon, Ohio, has hired 22 Auburn students in recent years, almost all of whom have stayed with the company. "At Swagelok, we are in an upturn and can't have enough people with skills in the pipeline," operations excellence manager Reese Armstrong said in a statement.

"The curriculum Auburn students learn puts them in the best position to be successful," he added. "Swagelok is a values-driven company, and Auburn students have the values we are looking for."