Week of June 1st - A Great Week of Learning Beyond the Classroom

 

A Great Week of Learning Beyond the Classroom

Wow, what a great week.

The week of June 1st gave me the opportunity to do some really cool things with my students. Like anything in life, though, not everything happened exactly the way I thought it would.

I had scheduled a couple of plant tours with some of our industry partners, and somewhere along the way, the communication lines got a little crossed. I thought everything was scheduled for Wednesday, June 3rd, but on Monday I got a call from one of our industry partners, Premier Tech in Montgomery.

They said, “We’re really excited to have you all coming tomorrow.”

Tomorrow.

Thankfully, we were able to make some quick transportation arrangements, and everything came together smoothly. On Tuesday, I had the opportunity to take my students to Premier Tech in Montgomery, and it turned into a great experience.

Premier Tech is doing some really impressive advanced manufacturing work. We were able to see their shop, learn about their processes, and talk about the opportunities they have available. I have had several interns placed there, and one of my graduates was formerly one of their programmers before moving on to another opportunity. It is always exciting to walk into a facility and see real connections between what we teach in the classroom and what is happening in industry.

Premier Tech has a strong machining operation with mills, lathes, and other manufacturing processes. Their equipment is modern, capable, and focused around the specific work they do. It gave my students a clear look at how a company can build strong systems around a specific type of production.

Then, on Wednesday, we visited Regal Rexnord.

Regal Rexnord is also a machine shop, but it is very different from Premier Tech. That was one of the most valuable parts of the week. Both companies are involved in machining and manufacturing, but their shops do not look the same. Their work does not look the same. Their equipment does not look the same.

At Regal Rexnord, they run multiple lines in the facility and manufacture a variety of products. Their equipment has a lot of variation — some older, some newer, some large, some small. It gave the students a chance to see just how broad the machining industry really is. Even inside the same career field, different companies can have completely different layouts, processes, equipment, and job opportunities.

That is an important lesson for students.

Sometimes when people hear “machine shop,” they picture one thing. But the truth is, machining can look very different from one facility to another. A student may walk into one shop and see production machining, while another shop may focus on repair work, prototypes, large parts, small parts, complex assemblies, or specialized processes. Even the jobs inside those shops can be very different.

That is why these tours matter so much.

A classroom and a lab are incredibly important, but there is something powerful about students walking into a real manufacturing environment. They get to hear the machines running. They get to see the parts being made. They get to ask questions. They get to see the pace, the expectations, the teamwork, and the opportunities.

This semester, many of my students are very young, and I was proud of how they handled themselves. They were excited, engaged, and asked some really good questions. As an instructor, that is one of the best things to see. You can tell when students start making the connection between what they are learning and where it can take them.

These trips were not just tours. They were opportunities.

They were opportunities for students to see what their future could look like. They were opportunities for industry partners to meet the next generation of machinists. They were opportunities to strengthen the connection between education and the workforce.

I am incredibly thankful to Hudson at Premier Tech, and to Vanessa and Stephen at Regal Rexnord, for helping make these visits happen. It means so much when industry partners take time out of their day to invest in students.

That investment matters.

It matters when companies open their doors. It matters when they talk to students. It matters when they explain what they do, what they need, and what kind of opportunities are available. It matters when students can see that the skills they are learning have real value in the real world.

I am blessed to have the industry partners that I have. Not just Premier Tech and Regal Rexnord, but many other companies as well. So many of our local and regional manufacturers are always willing to help, support, encourage, and invest in the future of machining.

And for that, I am truly thankful.

This week reminded me again why this work is so important. We are not just teaching students how to run machines. We are helping them see possibilities. We are helping them connect their training to real careers. We are helping build the future workforce.

And weeks like this make all the effort worth it.

The pictures from this week tell the story better than words alone. You can see students standing on the shop floor, listening, observing, and taking it all in. You can see them sitting around a conference table, hearing directly from people working in the industry. And you can see a group of young students beginning to understand that the skills they are learning can lead to real opportunities.

That is what makes these tours so valuable. They help students connect the classroom, the lab, and the workplace. They help turn “one day” into something they can actually see.