ACC Students and Residents of Alpena Attend Manufacturing Boot Camp

ACC gave some students and residents an opportunity to get their work skills up by hosting a week of manufacturing boot camp.

Here’s a look into all of that action.

When it comes to spring break, people normally think that means rest, relax or even go on vacation. But for some students at Alpena Community College and residents of the area spring break means boot camp.

Earlier this week ACC hosted a manufacturing boot camp to help students and residents who were unemployed or under employed with skills to take to future employers.

“There’s a significant skills lack of qualified skilled employees in the world of manufacturing. So this is kind of our opportunity to get some folks in here who are either unemployed or under employed or looking to potentially change jobs and they can see what this would mean for them in a career,” TAACCCT Grant Director, Dawn Stone said.

The boot camp allowed attendees to work in all types of manufacturing fields including welding, machining, and product design. The boot campers also went on tours to different plants in the area.

“From what I’ve seen, not very people know this, but Alpena is actually a major manufacturing city. There are a lot of companies that do some major manufacturing here and we actually got to tour those facilities,” ACC Student, Boot Camp Attendee, Ruben Maldonado said.

Companies work hand and hand with ACC to help students earn their degrees. There were four instructors at this week’s boot camp to walk each attendee through their training.

“I think this is an excellent way to get into the manufacturing industry. They’ve really expanded everything I know about the manufacturing industry. How many jobs are available, and really gave me the basic skills to kind of get started moving into that industry, because it’s something that has interested me for a long time, I just didn’t know where to get started at,” Unemployed Boot Camp Attendee, Phoenix Hogg said.

There were 13 attendees at this week’s boot camp. The free hands on program will have another boot camp some time this summer.

In Alpena for WBKB News, I’m Star Connor.