School of Tech makes medical manufacturing attractive to students

GW Plastics has celebrated the graduation of its second School of Tech class and the students' ability to create and design their own plastics product

School of Tech is a workforce training, career development and educational outreach programme for high school students, as GW Plastics said there is a  growing regional and national skilled labour shortage.

Cathy Tempesta, GW Plastics director of human resources, said: “It is very difficult to find a high school shop class that provides relevant training in our industry.

“There are limited ways for students to become exposed to the world of manufacturing, so we launched our own school in order to make manufacturing attractive again.”

GW Plastics said it recruits its own employees in collaboration with high school teachers to instruct the students on all things manufacturing, including polymer science, product design, mold building, injection molding, automation, quality assurance and general business skills.

Each semester includes a visit to Gifford Medical Center in Randolph where the students can see GW Plastics’ healthcare products used in real life and learn about the ramifications if a device is not manufactured to the highest level of quality possible.

The most recent graduates learned manufacturing techniques with the School of Tech programme and then were able to design and manufacture their own products - mobile phone holders that are now being sold at their school.

Tempesta said: "Most of these students have never been in a manufacturing environment before and now they have successfully designed and manufactured their own product. These experiences that the students are now able to list on a future college or job application are unparalleled."