Staff Report - Email News

Wednesday, July 01, 2009

HOPKINSVILLE – Local sixth through eighth graders affiliated with the Big Brothers Big Sisters organization will soon descend upon area plants and industry for a first-hand immersion into advanced manufacturing.

S.L.A.M., which is an acronym for Students Learning Advanced Manufacturing, is being coordinated by Hopkinsville Community College through its Community Based Job Training Grant, awarded by the U.S. Department of Labor.

According to Lorraine Simpson, Facilitator with HCC’s Department of Labor Project ITEM, students will be exposed to the wide range of opportunities available to them in the manufacturing sector.

“Manufacturing in the last 20 years has changed in many ways – from the shop floor to the emphasis on teamwork skills, to personal growth and development and manufacturing processes”, stated Simpson.

Campers will be contacted through the Big Brothers Big Sisters organizations in Christian and Trigg Counties. Each day of the camp will present a new topic of focus including robotics, electricity, quality, safety and process flow. Campers will also be visiting local plants and gaining a first-hand look at manufacturing in the region.

“Most people, unless they work in a plant, have not visited the operational side of a manufacturing facility. Certainly the majority of students have not, so what we hope to accomplish is to expose these young people to the opportunities available to them in advanced manufacturing, and give them a taste of the skills required to work in such a place”, continued Simpson.

Campers will have take home projects to work on including robots, electrical experiment kits and safety items.

A commencement ceremony will take place at the conclusion of each week’s camps. Dates for the camps are July 20 – 24 and July 27 – 31. Big Brother Big Sister participants in Christian County may contact Deberia Alexander at 886-8172 for registration materials, and Trigg County students can call Amy Allen at 522-2210.

All classes will take place on the campus of Hopkinsville Community College.

(Information for this report was contributed by Yvette Eastman, the dean of institutional advancement for KCTCS.)