Boeing Mentor Protégé Program: Career Training Collaborative Takes Flight

This is exciting because it gives us the capacity that the department has not had before, training individuals in the workplace, and exposure of our students to a first-hand industry experience. - Clementine Sessoms, director of development, College of Natural and Behavioral Sciences

The Pacific Contours Mentor Protégé Program, a collaborative between minority- serving California State Universities (CSUs) and community colleges, will provide technology training for the employees of Pacific Contours Aerospace Machining and Assembly, along with a hands-on industry experience for students and faculty.

With support from Boeing Army Systems, the Western State Minority Institutions Research, Technology, and Training Consortium (MSIRTTC), which is made up of CSUDH; CSU Fullerton; CSU Los Angeles; Compton Community College; and Coastline Community College, will update the computer skills of otherwise craftsman level machinists. Mohsen Beheshti, chair and professor, Computer Science, describes the goals of the program as twofold.

“One of our goals is to train the employees to be able to handle those machines by updating their computer skills,” he says. “Additionally, through the internship, we would bring in students who are interested in this field, and increase the number of skilled machinists.”

Pacific Contours is a two-generation family-owned business whose products, such as the titanium parts for the C-17 and the Joint Strike Fighter, are in high demand in the aerospace industry. While the machining trade has historically been comprised of skills handed down largely from father to son, the new computer technology of the manufacturing equipment has necessitated an upgrade in skills for even the most accomplished machinist. After meeting with Boeing, a major client, in their Philadelphia headquarters last year, Pacific Contours executives decided they needed to augment the skills of their employees.

Clementine Sessoms, director of development, College of Natural and Behavioral Sciences, co-authored the proposal to Boeing Army Systems with Beheshti. The $130,000 grant will last for two years with the program slated to begin later this spring. While the program will be based on the CSUDH campus, additional locations for classes have yet to be determined.

“What’s unique about this program is that Boeing Philadelphia is the mentor, but the protégé company is on the West Coast, and they wanted to interact with a consortium here,” Sessoms notes. “This is exciting because it gives us the capacity that the department has not had before, training individuals in the workplace, and exposure of our students to a first-hand industry experience.”

According to Sessoms, MSIRTTC hopes to combine the forces of smaller universities to compete with larger institutions for similar funding opportunities with the Department of Defense. Beheshti supports this notion, saying, “That is the whole idea behind the minority institutions in the West Coast creating this consortium. Bringing more research into minority-serving institutions will result in more opportunities for faculty to compete with faculty at major institutions. Bringing the same exposure to research opportunities to students will enable us to train them, so they can be competitive in the job market when they graduate.”

A Technology Based Machining (TBM) Certificate can be earned by taking seven courses with curriculum developed by faculty members from the participating institutions. TBM certification could be awarded as early as spring 2007 by CSUDH. The courses which include information management; security, safety and quality assurance; and machine programming, would be offered to students as well as Pacific Contours employees. A summer internship for students will provide opportunities such as computer training of Pacific Contours employees and helping to revamp the company’s Website. Beheshti says that Boeing directives will help the consortium develop courses that would assist working machinists while growing skilled professionals in a trade whose numbers are dwindling.

“Having machinists is a necessity," he says. "There aren’t that many anymore. Because this manufacturing is an Army-related activity, it has to be done in the United States, so you can’t outsource the work. We have to make sure we bring their employees up to the skill levels that they need to have to do this kind of work.”

Beheshti described a pile of material that he saw on a tour of Pacific Contours, which was flawed upon its processing and left out as an example of the waste that results when mistakes are made.

“These are very expensive parts for fighter jets,” he says. “One wrong adjustment can cost up to $18,000.”

“One little mistake can make a whole batch useless,” echoes Sessoms. “And you can’t recycle the materials. That’s why this is so important.”

According to Sessoms, the chance for CSU and community college students to get their first taste of the industrial environment would introduce career options that they hadn’t considered before.

“Students will have an undergraduate degree and exposure to what machinists know,” she says, “and these workers are in high demand. The salaries are great in that area, and the opportunities are wide open.”

For information on MSIRTTC, visit http://csc.csudh.edu/msirttc/index.php?option=com_frontpage&Itemid=1.
 
For more information on Pacific Contours, visit http://pacificcontours.com/.

-Joanie Harmon