JBJ: FSCJ partners with local manufacturers to tackle workforce shortage

Link to article: https://www.bizjournals.com/jacksonville/news/2018/10/13/fscj-partners-with-local-manufacturers-to-tackle.html?ana=e_me_set1&s=newsletter&ed=2018-10-13&u=ukkHq%2BNTtqNlUag%2B8mQ1uQ09828f37&t=1539442806&j=84391811

FSCJ partners with local manufacturers to tackle workforce shortage

Florida State College at Jacksonville hosted employees of local manufacturers and utility companies Friday to showcase new equipment and proposed curricula that will form FSCJ's new workforce training program. The program, FSCJ Works, will develop a variety of engineers and technicians in a $853,000 training lab.

During Friday morning's showcase, Festo Didactic Global Product Manager Stephane Casse performed a live demonstration of the PlantPAX Process Control Training system, a $125,000 system that trains instrumentation technicians to troubleshoot a wide array of process systems. Casse displayed the ways that instructors, with a few buttons and levers, could wreak chaos on the systems – chaos that students have to learn to solve.

"You can create any situation that you can't try on a real system," said Casse, who noted that the system was meant to simulate real world equipment and be "student-proof."

The PlantPAX is part of the $456,000 FSCJ has raised in grant and corporate funds for its new training lab. FSCJ will begin training with this lab, but hopes to finish raising the $853,000 needed to fund a full-scale training lab. In addition to PlantPAX, the lab will also feature pulp/paper process training systems, process control entry level training systems and mechatronics training systems.

Fourteen local manufacturers and utilities helped shape the program FSCJ is developing, which would yield an associate's degree in advanced manufacturing.

"My goal in my job is you get the return on your investment that you demand," said Douglas Brauer, dean of the engineering and industry programs at FSCJ.

Bill Allen, director of FSCJ Works, noted that the program was conceived out of concerns raised by Rayonier Advanced Materials (NYSE: RYAM) and others that were struggling to find properly skilled workers. Allen encouraged these businesses to help sponsor the program.

"Call your HR people and ask how much it costs to hire one of these technicians," said Allen. "Take that number, multiply it by two and cut us a check."