Companies in the Franklin Business Park and Milwaukee Area Technical College are in the planning stages of establishing an employee training program that is slated to start in late 2015 or early 2016.
The objective of the program is for MATC faculty to come to the business park and teach a variety of classes to employees of participating companies. Employees would receive in-demand training in a convenient location, and the collaboration of businesses would make the classes more affordable.
“This would be a continuation of trying to help employees gain more training and make it easier for them to improve their skills and further their careers,” said Dave Dull, president and chief executive officer of Allis-Roller LLC. “We’re trying to put something together that would involve all the businesses in the business park.”
In addition to Allis-Roller, the Franklin Business Park is home to a plethora of businesses such as Carmex manufacturer Carma Labs Inc., snack mix maker Baptista’s Bakery Inc., and Quad/Graphics-owned logistics provider Transpak Corp.
Dull has taken on the leadership role in what is being called the Franklin Business Consortium by seeking out MATC’s participation, offering to hold classes at Allis-Roller’s 110,000-square-foot facility and hosting planning meetings.
In the second meeting, MATC officials led business representatives through a brainstorming session to determine which classes would be most valuable.
The top three classes were management skills, which include people management, conflict resolution and performance management; general computer skills, especially as it pertains to Microsoft Office; and customer service training that would teach employees how to interact with customers in a more efficient and professional manner.
Another long-term goal for the Franklin Business Consortium is to build a bridge program for high school students to feed into manufacturing careers. But for now, Dull said the consortium is first focused on the training program.
Dull projects that 10 to 20 of his 50 employees would likely take classes in the program’s first year, and his goal is for at least 100 employees from companies throughout the business park to participate. They could be interns or full-time employees, ranging from entry-level workers to more long-term employees.
Dull anticipates six to eight classes to be offered in the first year and for them to be held during the course of an hour or two per week.
Four to eight faculty members will likely teach the classes, and MATC will tailor the length and frequency of the classes to the companies’ needs, according to Mark Felsheim, vice president of MATC’s Oak Creek campus and director of the college’s Office of Workforce and Economic Development.
Felsheim said MATC wants to be involved in the program for several reasons.
“It helps us meet our mission of helping the economic development of the region, serving our businesses, and helping our students find good-paying jobs,” he said. “It’s a win-win all the way around.”
Felsheim said the program is based on a model MATC put together with northwest Milwaukee’s Granville Business Improvement District last summer. Approximately 90 students from 15 businesses participated in that program. Eight of the employees were from Busch Precision Inc., which served as the lead company. The two-month program consisted of four classes: blueprint reading, customer service, computer training and metallurgy, according to Busch Precision president and chief executive officer Michael Mallwitz.
At Dull’s request, Mallwitz attended the Franklin Business Consortium’s first planning meeting to share his experience with the Granville program.
“I wanted to help them in their efforts to do the same thing down there because if we improve manufacturing around the region, it’s good for all of us,” Mallwitz said.
Mallwitz’s advice for the Franklin Business Consortium is to take the time to get to know each other’s businesses, as he said that serves as a catalyst to more economic growth. It also forms a trusted peer group that can share best practices, he added.
While Dull expects that companies will officially begin signing up for the program by September or October, one Franklin business that is interested in participating is Krones Inc., a manufacturer with 500 employees.
Tom Schulz, head of production at Krones, said his company has a difficult time filling skilled positions. Consequently, it has begun hiring less skilled employees, whom it has to train.
“In doing so, we end up with people who may not know certain things, and it would be nice if there were some opportunity to provide that training locally,” he said.
Some classes Schulz would like to see taught are inspection, quality control, and geometric dimensioning and tolerancing. He said as of now, seven to 10 of his employees could benefit from the GD&T class.
The more companies that participate in the program, the more affordable the classes become, according to Felsheim. The average fee is $250 an hour, so the cost per person would be reduced to $25 if 10 people take a course.
Felsheim said MATC will work with the companies to apply for state grants, and the remainder would be paid for by the businesses.
“It’s off to a good start,” Dull said of the program. “And we’re excited about trying to make something happen.”
