Nine Students Win Scholarships From NBT
Despite a shaky economy, positions in the skilled manual trades remain the most difficult to fill, so half of these winners (those over age 40) are going back to school full-time to gain a competitive edge in the marketplace.
Posted: September 20, 2010
Nine students seeking careers in manufacturing earned $1,500 toward their college or trade school education from Nuts, Bolts & Thingamajigs® (NBT), The Foundation of the Fabricators & Manufacturers Association, Intl.® (FMA; Rockford, IL). This year NBT awarded scholarships totaling $13,500 to college- or trade-school-bound, post-secondary students who seek careers in manufacturing. The 2010 winners are:
? John Bennett, New Franklin, MO
? Thomas Brown, Evansville, IN
? Guy Chan, Vancouver, WA
? Christopher Ditalia, Deer Park, NY
? Joe Dobie, Yakima, WA
? Earley Cody Hill, Albany, OH
? Ryan Melville, Naches, WA
? Christopher Norman, Willingboro, NJ
? Lance Poeppelman, West Mansfield, OH
?We congratulate the students selected as NBT scholarship award winners, and are pleased to assist them in fulfilling their academic goals,? said Gerald Shankel, president and CEO of the NBT. ?These students recognize that working a skilled manufacturing job can be rewarding financially and fulfilling personally. Our 2010-11 winners show that education is not an activity reserved for people in their teens and early 20s. Half of this year?s winners are over 40 and are going back to school full-time to acquire skills that will help them be more competitive in the 21st century manufacturing job market."
All of the 2010 NBT scholarship winners will attend a technical college or community college. To be eligible for the scholarships, applicants were required to be full-time students meeting a specified minimum GPA, and enrolled in an engineering or manufacturing-related course of study or a trade or technical program leading to a career in manufacturing. Students were responsible for submitting academic records and an engineering or manufacturing-related program description with each application. ?Despite the shaky economy, a 2009 Manpower Talent Shortage Survey report revealed that the skilled manual trades are among the most difficult jobs to fill in North America,? added Shankel. ?With majors in machine tool technology, advanced manufacturing, welding, computer engineering technology, manufacturing engineering and industrial technology, these students will be prepared to fill the skilled labor openings that American manufacturers must fill.?
In addition to the monetary grant, each scholarship winner also received from NBT?s industry partner, SolidWorks Corporation (Concord, MA), a copy of its Student Design Kit CAD software package. The Student Design Kit is an easy-to-learn, Windows-based 3D CAD application that gives students the ability to create ?real-life? 3D designs they can easily manipulate.
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