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The Last Two School Visits by Precision Plus During Academic Year 2013-2014 Were a True Testament to the Spirit of Collaboration

Michael Reader

During the 2013-2014 school year, Precision Plus has made a concerted effort to visit as many area schools as we possibly could. Neither Barry Butters, Director of Education and Training, nor Mike Reader, Precision Plus’ President, allowed snow or sleet, extremely cold temperatures, rain, or heat stop them from making themselves available for meetings, events, or to speak to a class full of students about manufacturing.

Butters explains to a student how a part is machined

The last two visits of the year were to the Real School in Racine, Wisconsin on their Career Day, and to Burlington Area High School to speak to students in Casey Miller’s advanced metals and pre-engineering classes. Both schools had invited Precision Plus to come to their facilities.

Butters demonstrates how the PartMaker software is used at Precision Plus

But, how did they know about Precision Plus and their efforts to close the manufacturing skills gap? These schools made use of a common resource: Inspire Wisconsin, powered by Career Cruising.

Inspire Wisconsin—the Pathway from Talent to Careers—has a distinct mission:

Inspire Wisconsin’s mission is to develop and disseminate an organized, integrated community-development platform for life-long career planning and learning which creates bridges between employers, educators and students and connects students and adult job seekers with work-based learning experiences and job opportunities.

By bringing all parties to the table–employers, educators, students, parents and job seekers, Inspire Wisconsin offers an opportunity for maximizing careers and talents. Its leadership says it all: respected individuals from education, industry, and government, who understand the importance of a highly skilled and educated workforce.

Finally, Career Cruising, developers of “The world’s most engaging and inspiring career learning program” makes it all possible. By integrating with Inspire Wisconsin, their tool can be used by Wisconsin schools. Their interactive program helps “people of ages achieve their full potential in school, career and life,” and provides an arena for matching needs with initiatives, and talent with careers.

And that is how, the last two visits of academic year 2013-2014 came to be. There were a direct result of separate entities working together: Inspire Wisconsin, Career Cruising, the schools, and Precision Plus No shots in the dark here. Instead, targeted, skilled shots that hit the bulls-eye.

Precision Plus looks forward to a great 2014-2015 year!

Precision Plus in Elkhorn, Wisconsin, Continues Its Education Outreach

Michael Reader

Pictured from left to right: Ryan Rewey, Jon Watson, Bill Pfund, Deb Prowse, Dawn Skrzypchak. Not pictured was Katie McQueen.

Barry Butters, Director of Education and Training, hosted a new group of teachers from Beloit Memorial High School on Thursday, March 27, 2014. Ryan Rewey, the Director of Career and Technical Education for the Beloit School District arranged to have several math and science teachers as well as a guidance counselor from Beloit Memorial H.S. visit Precision Plus to see that STEM education is truly at the heart of the manufacturing industry.  The educators were given an overview of how Precision Plus uses the Inventor 3D CAD software coupled with the PartMaker software to program the Fanuc controllers on the CNC machines.  Precision machining is a perfect example of where STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) all come together.  There is the science of metal properties, technology in the CNC programming, engineering in the feeds, speeds and chip formation and the math involved on the geometry of the parts themselves.

Butters also traveled to Union Grove High School on Tuesday, March 11th, where principal Tom Herman arranged presentations to the Math, Science, Tech Education and Guidance Departments.  Butters spoke to the teachers about the nature of the work done at Precision Plus, as well as discussing the internship opportunities the company offers.  Butters felt the time spent at Union Grove with 26 of their teachers had big impact in the on the future of the industry, as it helped disperse the unfounded image of manufacturing as a boring, dirty and dangerous field.

Lastly, Butters most recent classroom visit was to Lake Geneva Badger High School where he spoke to all of Clint Geissler metals classes.  The informative message to the students was about today’s manufacturing and the type of schooling needed to pursue a career in manufacturing.  The presentation also included a discussion of the soft skills all employers are looking for.

Butters plans to attend a Career Day event at the Real School, which is part of the Racine Unified School District, on Thursday, April 17th and is scheduling a visit to speak to Casey Miller’s metals classes at Burlington High School in the near future.