National Skills Summit

National Skills Summit
Innovative Initiatives: Manufacturing

Jet Products Company, Inc.: School-to-Career Apprenticeship Program

The Challenge:

To attract, develop, and retain a skilled work force for Jet Products.

The Solution:

Give employees the opportunity to continue their training and career path development toward higher-skilled jobs through apprenticeship programs and support of further education.

The Partners:

Jet Products Company, Inc., a precision-machining facility in Phoenix, Arizona, operates a School-to-Career Apprenticeship Program to recruit and develop young workers.

The Deer Valley Unified School District, the Phoenix Union High School District, the Glendale Union High School District, and the Paradise Valley Unified High School District refer juniors and seniors interested in manufacturing careers to the Jet Products apprenticeship program.

City of Phoenix YouthSkilled Program provides out-of-school youth with a combination of educational programming and vocational machining skills, and refers out-of-school youth to Jet Product's apprenticeship program.

The Story:

In 1988, Jet Products joined forces with Deer Valley High School to establish a new way of recruiting skilled employees. Using the machining technology curriculum developed by the Arizona Department of Education, Jet Products created a School-to-Career apprenticeship program tailored to its individual needs. The program has been so successful that Jet Products expanded its scope and now recruits students from school districts throughout the Phoenix metro area. Two years ago, Jet Products began to recruit out-of-school youth through the City of Phoenix YouthSkilled Program. Recently, when the school system was no longer able to afford the cost of the apprenticeship program, Jet Products provided the classes and apprenticeships at their facility.

Jet Products has apprenticed more than 50 students to date. Apprentices are paid $6.50 an hour during the classroom and demonstration phase of the program, increasing to $7.00 per hour when they begin to operate shop-floor machinery while continuing their formal classroom training from company team leaders. They work four days a week, from 4 p.m. to 9 p.m. during the school year. If a student's grades are good and Jet Products hires them full-time, the company will pay all future education costs toward an associate's degree in manufacturing technology.

More than half of Jet Products' current 48 full-time employees graduated from the company's School-to-Career apprenticeship program. Every apprentice has finished high school and is either still employed at Jet Products, pursuing a higher education, or has advanced to other employment. Eighty percent of the apprentices hired by Jet Products have obtained additional education at community colleges and universities. Several have gone on to become engineers.

Recognizing that many people do not want to go into manufacturing because of their misperceptions about the industry, Jet Products Vice President and General Manager Jim Perlow now markets the program - including open houses at the plant - to educate students, parents, and teachers about the kind of technical jobs modern manufacturing plants have to offer.

Perlow obtained his Arizona Community College Teaching Certificate in Business/Manufacturing Technology, and is applying for an educational agreement with the community college system to allow students/apprentices to receive college credit for their coursework at Jet products. Today, other firms send their employees to attend the course study being offered at Jet Products. What started as a way to attract skilled employees to his firm has turned into a program that serves an entire industry cluster.

A Model of Innovation:

Both the students and Jet Industries clearly win with the School-to-Career Apprenticeship program. The students get vocational training, job opportunities, and support for continuing education. This formula adds up to a loyal workforce for Jet; former apprentices are the backbone of the company's workforce.

Contacts:

Jim Perlow
Vice President and General Manager
Jet Products Company, Inc.
2660 West Quail Avenue
Phoenix, Arizona 85027
623-869-6749 (p)
623-780-8830 (f)
jim@jet-products.com

Deborah Larkins
Youthbuild/YouthSkilled Programs Coordinator
Human Services Department, Employment and Training Division
City of Phoenix
200 West Washington Street, 19th Floor
Phoenix, Arizona 85003
602-262-6776 (p)
602-534-3915 (f)