New program to give northeast Indiana students insight into manufacturing careers
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Whitko Community School Corp. is partnering with OrthoWorx to launch a program aimed at showcasing careers in manufacturing for high school juniors and seniors.
The ManufacturED program will see manufacturing pathway students at the Whitko Career Academy in the Whitley County town of Larwill work with local companies to gain fundamental manufacturing skills, hands-on work experience and internships.
Chris Benedict, director of the Whitko Career Academy, told Inside INdiana Business the goal is to make a connection between the classroom and real-world work experience.
“As a lifelong teacher, I always hear, ‘When am I ever going to use this?'” Benedict said. “We want to have those opportunities for those kids to see actually when you’re going to use that and the hands-on environment that goes with that. Our business leaders are looking to try to get in and recruit talent in the area and keep that talent here.”
The program is partnering with C&A Tool Inc. in Churubusco, Micropulse Inc. in Columbia City, and Paragon Medical in Pierceton.
Beginning in the 2025-26 academic year, participating high school juniors will be involved in classroom work with an instructor at Whitko Career Academy four days per week. Then, a team or specialist from one of the industry partners will come in one day per week to work with students on project-based learning, Benedict said.
Students will also have the opportunity to visit the manufacturing operations of each partner company to get a better understanding of how manufacturing works in the real world.
“While the program is housed at the Whitko Career Academy, it will blend students from multiple high schools and offer them one consistent program,” Micropulse Human Resources Manager Baily Beiswanger said in a news release. “Students will experience hands-on curriculum coupled with real-world support from local companies. We are optimistic that this program will grow into something that will benefit the students and the community for years to come.”
In year two, students will be offered a paid internship with one of the three companies. Benedict said the program benefits the companies by giving them a pipeline of potential future talent.
“It just gives them an added mission of being able to get in, get their hands on students earlier, get them exposed to their company, as well as giving them the opportunity to build that relationship with that student,” he said. “So if the student does go away to a four-year college, maybe they’ll come back and still work in the summers. They’ve developed that relationship with them.”
Benedict said there is a large demand for a program like ManufacturED, particularly with the region being known as the Orthopedic Capital of the World and home to several medical device manufacturers.
“There is a high demand for machinists, high demand for manufacturing kids to kind of go into,” he said. “A lot of those businesses are telling kids…the people that are speaking to them are guys that started in three-level positions, and now they’re the president, they’re the VP of operations there. There’s a chance for advancement in their companies, and I think kids will get excited about the opportunity to see this as a career, not just a job.”
While the program won’t get started until later this year, Benedict said he is hopeful that it will continue to grow and attract more companies to participate.
“A lot of times, it’s a big commitment on the businesses, to say, ‘I’m going to give a team of two, three guys to come to your place once a week to do this.’ I think that’s showing the commitment level they have to recruit talent to make sure that they keep that talent right here in the industry locally.”