Chicago Carbon Partners with IET to Train Employees

Since February of this year, Chicago Carbon Company asked IET to deliver a variety of training programs to its employees. Everything from steam turbines to CPR was requested with more to come.

The Lemont-based company contacted IET after seeing the school's industrial maintenance catalog. Working directly with IET's Amy Murphy, the company designed courses to address their specific needs. We thought it might be helpful to ask Chicago Carbon's ISO/Training Coordinator Matt J. Mirro why he chose IET.

What are the business goals of the Chicago Carbon company?

Our vision is to be the petroleum coke supplier and service provider most admired for its people, partnership and performance.

How did you hear about IET?

I have been attending classes at JJC for approximately 25 years now.

What led you to your decision to use IET for industrial in-house training?

The quality and technical expertise of training, flexible schedules of classes, and the cooperation of the Staff and Administration Department.

What is the opinion of the employees who have been through the hands-on training?

The consensus through feedback on training is summed up in this quote "The training was very informative and had a lot to do with actual plant situations and processes".

Do you have any evidence that IET training made a difference to your quality and or profit margin?

There is a significant savings over alternative training, which impacts our bottom line.

Do you see a continuing need for training over the next ten years?

Definitely, in order to stay competitive and keep our people at the top of their game, we will strive for continual improvement through training to support our goals. I would strongly recommend IET to other industrial businesses.

If you would like to partner with IET for your in-house training, call Amy Murphy at (815) 280-1418, or e-mail amurphy@jjc.edu.

What Art Can Teach Us About Leadership

Can managers learn how to lead from a visual artist? They can if the artist is photographer Dewit Jones. Jones' career spans twenty years and includes work as a freelance photographer for National Geographic and Academy Award nominations for two films he directed. His reputation as a photographer is world-reknowned. His reputation as a leader is about to become the same.

Jones has produced a training film on video and DVD that uses the image-making process to teach leaders the importance of having a vision. "I found the material fascinating and more helpful than many texts I've read," said Bruce Kazmanich, instructional technologist for Joliet Junior College's Institute of Economic Technology. "Jones used a progression of images to show how he determined his vision for a photo assignment, refined that vision through the picture-taking process, and finally ended up with the perfect image. Where I would have been satisfied with the first few images, he produced many more until the image that expressed his vision was created," said Kuzmanich.

The video is called Focus Your Vision and goes into detail about how to find direction and purpose. Jones talks about how the combination of energy and passion with our focused visions gives us power and direction. According to Jones, when we connect with our visions and release our passion for it, we have a better understand of who we are, what we stand for, and where we are going. "Dream the dream, find that extraordinary vision, and keep it in focus," says Jones.

His key concepts fall into just a few principles that include the following:

Keep Your Vision Focused - When we focus our visions, we find their purpose.

Stop, Look, and Listen - Great visions do not leap out to meet us! To find one, we need to slow down and really understand what is happening.

Hold on to the Best, Let the Rest Fall Away - Intellect helps us find which parts of our visions are really important and which to get rid of.

Trust Your Intuition - If we learn to trust it, our intuition can reveal spectacular visions.

It's Not Trespassing to go Beyond Your Own Boundaries - Taking risks and expanding our horizons help us turn visions into reality.

Make Your vision Big Enough - The really big visions should never be focused too tightly.

Do You Have Juice in Your Camera? - Juice is the passion, the energy needed to realize our visions.

For more information on how this program can be customized for your facility, call Bruce Kuzmanich at (815) 280-1512, or e-mail him at bkuzmani@jjc.edu.

Herman Trend Alert: Employers Will Become More Active Skill-Builders

What does it take to motivate employers to accept the skills shortage and take action? In spite of increasing difficulty finding, recruiting, and hiring skilled workers, many employers are still in denial. Indications from a few recent public and private surveys suggest that only about half the employers surveyed are serious about overcoming their shortages of employees with the skills they need.

The half that do understand their predicament are taking a number of aggressive steps to build their current workforce capacity and prepare for future needs. Some strategic human resource professionals are future-focused enough to engage in workforce planning, as an in-house exercise or with the support of outside consultants. These staffing needs studies identify exactly what positions will be needed at various times in the years ahead, using their corporate strategic plan to guide their anticipated requirements.

Armed with greater insight into what their needs will be, the forward-looking employers are taking a number of steps to assure that they will have the workforce they will need to meet client expectations. Much of their developmental work is centered around academic preparation.

According to the 2006 Access to Human Capital and Employment Verification Survey, recently released by the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), 59 percent of organizations responding to their survey reported offering undergraduate educational assistance, 48 percent provide graduate educational support, and 48 percent provide graduate educational assistance. These numbers reflect a significant investment in the company's future...and in its people.

Employers who understand their situation will expand training for job-related skills. Some of that training will be delivered by company personnel; more will be presented by professional contract trainers. We'll see more internships, too.

Will employers invest all this money in training because it is the right thing to do? A few will, but most of those who understand the economic benefit will know it's a matter of survival. They will be consciously upgrading their capacity to provide the services needed by the customers they serve.

Hiring foreign nationals is not seen as the preferred solution, so training current and future indigenous employees will be emphasized.

Copyright 1998-2006 by The Herman Group of Companies, Inc., all rights reserved. Reproduction for publication is allowed by permission of The Herman Group, Inc., and must include the following attribution: "From 'The Herman Trend Alert,' by Roger Herman and Joyce Gioia, Strategic Business Futurists.

IET Responds to Increasing Demand for Manufacturing Technicians

With all the talk about jobs going overseas, many people assume there are no manufacturing opportunities in America.

"Not true," says Joliet Junior College's Institute of Economic Technology (IET) Associate Vice President, Thom Price. "I get numerous calls weekly from manufacturers looking for trained technicians," says Price. "We actually have more jobs than trained people."

While demand is high, it is geared toward those who have the technical skills needed to handle a high-tech manufacturing environment. "We're in the age of robotics and computers," said Price. "Industry needs people who can operate, troubleshoot, and repair these extremely sophisticated machines. The industry also needs people with electrical and mechanical skills – people who will know how to wire a component, or troubleshoot a faulty switch."

In response to this increasing demand for highly-trained technicians, IET is hosting a Manufacturing/Industrial Career Night on Wednesday, October 11 from 4 pm to 7 pm. Representatives from manufacturing firms will be on site to discuss employment, internships, and scholarship opportunities with their companies.

To learn more, call Amy Murphy at (815) 280-1418, or e-mail amurphy@jjc.edu.