02/22/19 – 3:59 P.M.

Raise The Bar has announced a new apprenticeship program called the Federation for Advanced Manufacturing Education program. Cooper Tire’s Cathy Huffman is serving as the President of the Board of Directors for the program. She explained that FAME will partner businesses with students and Owens Community College.

The 18-month program will have students taking classes and working to get an advanced manufacturing technology degree.

Huffman added that the students will graduate the program with an associates degree in advanced manufacturing technology. The businesses involved in the program will pay half of the students’ tuition and also hire the students after they graduate.

There are 8 businesses supporting the new program right now. They are; Cooper Tire, Rowmark, Whirlpool, GSW Manufacturing, Nissin Brake Ohio, Veoneer Nissin Brake Systems (VNBS), Ball Metal, and Simona-PMC.

Raise the Bar executive director Laurie Zydonik said that the best part is that the program is scalable to other community needs. The program will officially start in August of this year.