Orthopedic manufacturing career pathway program launching in Warsaw
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Warsaw-based not-for-profit OrthoWorx and Warsaw Community Schools are teaming up for an initiative to give high school students the opportunity to prepare for careers in the orthopedic manufacturing industry.
The Regional Advanced Manufacturing Pathway program, or RAMP, is a collaboration with four local manufacturers to give students hands-on experience and the chance for internships during their senior year.
“The idea here is that once they finish this program and finish high school, they can then be ready to work at one of these partners right away,” said Erin Serafino, talent director at OrthoWorx.
Serafino told Inside INdiana Business this type of program is getting a greater focus, but there is a more localized need.
“We also just have such a huge demand here in Warsaw, for talented, hard working, educated machinists, that can come in and help make these orthopedic implants that make people’s lives better,” she said. “We have the industry and we have an amazing school system, and it just makes sense to bring those two together so that we can have that talent here [and] have great jobs for our local students.”
The partners say the mission of the RAMP is to engage high school students in immersive learning experiences to prepare them for successful careers in advanced manufacturing, with an emphasis on orthopedics due to Warsaw’s reputation as the “Orthopedics Capital of the World.”
The industry partners involved in the program are Zimmer Biomet, Instrumental Machine & Development, Medartis, and PreMedTec, all based in Warsaw, that aim to give students greater visibility to career options in the region.
Ben Barkey is the director and principal of the Warsaw Area Career Center (WACC), and said preparing students for the workforce with a specific target toward the community’s need is a benefit.
“A lot of our students recognize these organizations in our community,” he said. “It just adds that extra layer of integration into our education program. It also is what the career center is meant to be, where we make it as real life as possible because these juniors and seniors, they’re down to less than a year in terms of deciding what their next pathway is. And so by us giving them this opportunity helps them really narrow their focus.”
The RAMP program will be available to a select group of junior and senior manufacturing pathway students at the WACC during the 2024-25 academic year.
Barkey said the industry partners will create the courses that they want to teach to the students, and teachers from Warsaw Community Schools will work with the partners to create lessons that are “meaningful and impactful,” he said.
At the end of their junior year, the students will then interview with the companies and will be placed into internships for their senior year.
“We will go then and visit and make sure the students’ soft skills are where they need to be, their training’s where it needs to be and if we need to push in and help support, because they are high school kids, we do that as well,” Barkey said.
The planning process for the RAMP program began about a year and a half ago. OrthoWorx first started to develop the initiative with the help of the Indiana Next Generation Manufacturing Competitiveness Center, or IN-MaC.
As the partners head toward the RAMP’s launch next fall, Barkey said prospective students will go through an interview process to be selected for the program. Officials are also working to ensure all of the lessons are ready and the necessary equipment and logistics are taken care of.
The first cohort will include approximately 20 students, but Barkey said the goal is to add more students over the years because having a robust workplace learning program in place creates a value add for both the students and the industry partners.
OrthoWorx said more details about the program will be released at a later date.