Manufacturing Apprenticeship Program Comes to Oakton this Fall
(Aug. 10, 2018) Oakton Community College is one of just 11 colleges in the United States to have partnered with Industry Consortium for Advanced Technical Training (ICATT), an innovative leading apprenticeship program in the Midwest for high-tech manufacturers. Oakton will collaborate with ICATT to begin offering industrial maintenance apprenticeship programs for students this fall.
Oakton’s ICATT apprenticeships are benchmarked on the German Dual Education System, an industry-led approach to education developed in conjunction with technology leaders, combining “on-the-job training” with theory and practice through an associate degree program to train a globally-competitive workforce. The program is accessible, even for small companies, and classroom and lab training is provided by Oakton.
“Partnering with ICATT allows for companies to hire our students while they learn at Oakton,” says Oakton Manufacturing Technology Chair Joe Cirone. “The company pays for them to complete their education. The program allows students to work three days and take classes at Oakton two days a week.”
“ICATT is very happy to begin its partnership with Oakton Community College this year as this helps to fill a need in the Chicagoland area,” says Director of the ICATT Apprenticeship Program Virginia Rounds. “At least three apprentices will be using Oakton to earn an associate degree as part of their ICATT apprenticeship.”
Rounds adds that companies already on board with the ICATT apprenticeship program offered at Oakton include SG360° and Federal-Mogul Motorparts.
“Oakton is the first college in Illinois that the ICATT Apprenticeship Program has selected to help train apprentices to the world-renown standard for mechatronics technicians set by the German industry,” she says. “In addition to expanding on the existing apprenticeships, we also have our eye on Oakton as a strategic partner for apprentices in other professions including pharmaceutical manufacturing technology. We are very excited about the growth opportunities with Oakton.”
According to the Chicago Workforce Partnership, manufacturing is the ninth highest growing occupation in Cook County for the second quarter of 2018. U.S. Department of Labor statistics show more than 327,000 manufacturing jobs have been added across the country so far this year. The U.S. Department of Labor also reports that 87 percent of apprentices in the nation are hired after completing training programs, earning an average salary of more than $50,000 per year.
Oakton’s manufacturing technology program focuses on CNC machining, CNC setup and programming, automation systems design and maintenance, PLC programming and machine control systems, industrial robotics systems, sensor technology and vision systems. In addition, Oakton is one of two community colleges in Illinois offering bar code/RFID technologies.
“With Oakton being a small college, class sizes are about 15 students so they get more attention and hands-on experience than they would elsewhere” Oakton Manufacturing Technology Coordinator Boguslaw Zapal says. “Our new facilities for our manufacturing labs opened in 2005, and they are constantly being updated in all areas, including CNC and robotics, so students are always being trained at the highest level.”
Students who have completed Oakton’s manufacturing technology program have found employment in a wide variety of manufacturing and distribution organizations throughout the Chicago area. Recent graduates hold diverse technical positions, from programming CNC machines for high tolerance part creation to designing products with rapid prototyping equipment.
Fall classes at Oakton begin Monday, Aug. 20. For more information about Oakton’s manufacturing technology classes, visit www.oakton.edu/mfg or contact Joe Cirone (847.376.7612, jcirone@oakton.edu) or Boguslaw Zapal (847.376.7707, bzapal@oakton.edu).