Elkhorn---A new manufacturing training facility at Gateway Technical College and the lead instructor's inspiring, personal journey through the field are combining to interest greater numbers of students in a sector that's crying out for skilled workers.
The opening earlier this year of the $2 million wing on Gateway's Elkhorn campus was officially marked Wednesday morning with a ribbon-cutting ceremony that was headlined by Lt. Gov. Rebecca Kleefisch.
Other speakers included Michael Reader, an Elkhorn industrialist and Gateway benefactor who founded Precision Plus Inc. The new center bears his company's name.
Also speaking was department chair Ben McFarland. He recounted that as a high school graduate in the 1990s he had no solid plans--until his mother suggested that he give welding a try. She thought the career would turn into a reliable way of earning a good living.
Mother was right.
McFarland graduated with a technical diploma from Gateway in Elkhorn and immediately went to work. "I realized that the manufacturing world was for me," McFarland told the audience at Wednesday's ribbon-cutting.
Then 15 years ago, McFarland accepted a manufacturing teaching job at Gateway, the very school where he got his start.
The 40 year-old McFarland now serves as department chair.
The new facility, he hopes, will become a showplace as Gateway continues to expose students to manufacturing as a career option.
"The skills gap you hear on the news is real," said Precision Plus President Reader, adding that an inaccurate perception of the manufacturing sector seems to continue to drive away students and their parents. "Dark, dirty and dangerous has been replaced by bright, clean and safe."
-0-