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A total of nine students signed to work for eight sponsor companies to receive on-the-job training for the next two years as part of the Federation for Advanced Manufacturing Education program.
The Florida FAME Sunshine Chapter celebrated the placement of its fourth cohort of students into local manufacturing companies with a signing day event on Tuesday, July 9.
A total of nine students signed to work for eight sponsor companies to receive on-the-job training for the next two years as part of the FAME program, which stands for the Federation for Advanced Manufacturing Education. Ormond Beach companies ABB Installation Products and Germfree were among the eight participating businesses. Sparton, B.Braun, By Light, Thompson Pump, Alleima and Teledyne Marine are also taking on students.
Victor Nadeau, who works at Thompson Pump and serves as part of the Florida FAME Sunshine Chapter, said local manufacturing companies are looking for talent.
"Companies in this room ... and the students make this program a success," Nadeau said. "And we want it to be successful. We want to get the word out."
The Sunshine Chapter, Nadeau said, is the only FAME chapter in the state of Florida. Students that participate in the program attend classes to graduate with an associate's degree in engineering technology while working at local manufacturing companies for hands-on training.
The fourth cohort was made up of:
Owens is the second woman to go through the FAME program, and both female participants have been sponsored by Germfree, a laboratory and cleanroom manufacturing company. She said she opted to go through the program because she likes working with her hands.
"It gives me the opportunity to learn more about manufacturing and also earn money," Owens said.
This is the fourth year that Germfree is hosting FAME students, said Emilie Schmitz, director of People Operations.
"We have a 100% placement rate — just like all the other businesses that have come up here — in hiring our students after this program," she said. "Our first student that graduated the program actually got recruited out of our company and is now traveling the world, so as sad as we at Germfree are, we are super excited for him and that shows the success of this program."
Daytona State College President Thomas LoBasso said in a statement to the Observer that the college, as the home of the state's first FAME chapter, has had "incredible success."
“This collaboration between the college, local manufacturers and the Volusia Manufacturing Association is creating a pipeline of highly skilled workers ready to fill in-demand jobs throughout the region," LoBasso said. "FAME plays a key role in our mission to meet the educational needs of our community and the employment demands of local businesses.”