This consortium includes local high school career centers, junior colleges, universities, and various Pennsylvania state education, labor, and economic development offices, says Keith Campbell, a consultant and former Hershey director of automation and integration who is working with the consortium.
“The training to be offered,” says Campbell, “is the foundation-level training for our Career and Technology Centers’ Industrial Maintenance programs. It represents nine credits of the Reading Area Community College AS Degree in Mechatronics Engineering Technology that we have developed with a specific packaging machinery focus. I am serving as director of the Industrial Maintenance Resource Center that is overseeing this program as its first initiative. We are still very hopeful of receiving the $1.5 million federal grant that will allow us to link up with other similar programs nationally and with potential participation by the Packaging Machinery Manufacturers Institute.”
Companies ready to participate in the new program include Pepperidge Farms, Cadbury Schweppes, Turkey Hill, Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson, Hershey, and Alcoa. Campbell encourages all packagers in South Central Pennsylvania who might be interested in participating in the on-line training initiative to contact him at ks.campbell@verizon.net.
