Cummins announces new career-focused program with Anoka-Hennepin’s Secondary Technical Educational Program
Today, Cummins Inc. (NYSE: CMI) announced a partnership with the Anoka-Hennepin’s Secondary Technical Educational Program (STEP), allowing students in the district to participate in the Cummins’ School to Work program. This work-based learning program is designed to train and give students a head start in securing high-paying jobs in the technical field, and is only the second School to Work program in the state.
“Cummins is excited to be partnering with STEP to bring the School to Work Program to the youth in the community,” said Martyn Jackson, Cummins Director of Genset and Systems Operations. “Diversity and Inclusion is a Cummins value and our competitive advantage. This program allows us an opportunity to cultivate and grow the next generation of talent; this generation will be responsible for solving the complex challenges of the future, and that’s what we do at Cummins. Through this relationship we can introduce, educate and provide high school students with the real-world skills that are required to give them a competitive advantage for these high-paying careers.”
STEP students will have an opportunity to work inside Cummins’ Power Generation manufacturing facility in Fridley, Minn, where they will go through a rotation of assignments to gain experience in manufacturing. The STEP curriculum offers a wide variety of options for students to study and practice in manufacturing technologies such as, welding, CNC machining, metrology, robotics, and others. The students’ learning will be complimented by working in a real-life production environment.
“Our hope is to transition the students on graduation into an entry level role in the plant, or encourage them to pursue education for careers in manufacturing,” added Jackson.
The School to Work program is a perfect example of how industry and local schools can work together to prepare the workforce of tomorrow. In fact, this type of collaboration can be a solution to fulfill a need for skilled workers in our local communities.
“Partnerships like this are really important for our schools and our students,” said Jessica Lipa, Director of STEP, and Anoka-Hennepin’s Career and Technical Education Programming District-Wide. “Without these kinds of partnerships, it would be difficult for the district to offer the kind of programming and opportunities where students can learn and work in a hands-on way with cutting-edge technologies in an industry setting. So, this is just wonderful.”
Beyond the School to Work program, Cummins is also donating two diesel engines to STEP as part of their ongoing partnership, so all students interested in automotive careers can have access to up-to-date equipment and technology.