Ohio Educators get 21st Century Manufacturing Skills Certifications

Ohio’s latest opportunity to help create the one and a half million workers that will be needed to close the Manufacturing Gap is being implemented this summer at the Marion area Tri-Rivers Career Center’s Robotics Advanced Manufacturing Technical Education Collaboration known as (RAMTEC). Nine RAMTEC Ohio facilities are being built through a $14,955,000 Ohio Department of Education grant called the Straight A Fund. These site are all modern “state of the art” facilities that have the latest and most advanced manufacturing tools from our largest automation and robotic suppliers.More than 50 RAMTEC Ohio secondary and adult career technology instructors from these nine facilities are taking part in industrial credentialing courses this summer that enables them to award credentialing courses to our next generation of manufacturing technicians and engineers starting this fall. They are training in the same advanced training rooms that more than 150 manufacturing technicians have trained in robotics, hydraulics and Programmable Logic Controls since the Marion RAMTEC center opened for training in February of 2014. Other sites at Miami Valley, Great Oaks, Penta, Pioneer, Tolles, C-TEC, Portage Lakes and Cuyahoga Valley will all open this fall.

Each site will have credentialed training in FANUC and Yaskawa Motoman Robotics, Allen-Bradley and Mitsubishi PLCs, Parker Hydraulics and FANUC CNC. All RAMTEC sites will also receive 3D printers, Laser engravers, Vex Robotics labs, Arduino Digital Manufacturing Kits that will serve a dual role in their labs and in their new mobile lab based trailers that will enable them to take their training equipment to fairs, middle schools, trade shows and recruitment events.

At Tri-Rivers we were able to start our RAMTEC center in 2013. This made it possible for us to lead the way on establishing partnerships through our 10 year history of helping to host in the community Vex, BOEBOT, Lego, and the National Robotics Challenge. We have hosted area, state and national robotic events through our partnerships with Yaskawa Motoman Robotics,SME EF, Marion Technical College, TRECA (now META Solutions), Whirlpool Corporation, OSUM, Honda of America and RobotWorx. The next step was to create a facility that would allow our students to get real world industrial training that would help our area manufacturing get workers that could be “floor ready.” RAMTEC is that solution.

Students from 256 school districts in Ohio can take these courses from the 7th to 12th grade at the nine new RAMTEC centers.

This summer and next summer we will be continuously training teachers to create a team in Ohio that will give our students the opportunity to get real world experience as well as earn certifications and credentials that will be highly recognized on their resume when they graduate to the world of work. Students will be exposed to manufacturing career opportunities starting in the 7th grade with Vex Robotics through summer camps and events at the RAMTEC sites as well as trailer based exposure to the latest industrial equipment.

Many more developments from RAMTEC are in the works that will allow even more online and hands on access to industrial training for those looking for college credit in our training courses.

Ritch Ramey
RAMTEC Ohio Coordinator
rramey@tririvers.com
740-360-8156