It was another big day on April 5th as the Auburn P-TECH juniors took part in their job shadows at Bo-Mer Plastics and Currier Plastics. As part of the P-TECH program, the juniors take part in job shadows to not only learn more about local companies, but to experience some of the different skills and positions within the business. The students were excited for the experience because they were able to acquire some of the skills needed for jobs at these companies. At Bo-Mer Plastics they made municipal-size planters and at Currier Plastics, students cleaned molds and inserted the molds into the blow molding machines. The P-TECH students pointed out that when they are in the classroom they are sitting and taking in information from a teacher, whereas on the job shadows they are actively learning how things work and they can see what they are producing, making their learning experience more meaningful.
Some of the skills that the P-TECH students are learning include: blueprint reading, hand tool operations, basic operation of machinery, taking apart molds, cleaning and maintenance of the molds, installing molds into the machines, safety procedures, and process operation. Bo-Mer and Currier noticed a new attitude for this second round of job shadows. The students knew what was going to be expected of them as they came ready to work and learn on-the-job skills.
Some students are already making decisions about where they want to work when they graduate from the P-TECH program. Familiarity is a big factor in the program as one student said, “They know my name” and “Co-workers are friendly,” have been noted as reasons for choosing their job shadow company for future employment. We want to give a special thank you to Bo-Mer Plastics and Currier Plastics for being the first companies to offer job shadows to the Auburn P-TECH program and providing great hands-on work experience for our students.
