What is the Learn While You Earn Sponsorship?
Like many companies in the manufacturing industry, Westminster Tool recognizes that there is a need to close the skills gap. There is a high demand for skilled employees, but many potential candidates don’t have the training to start a career in manufacturing. This can be discouraging for many people with an interest in joining the industry.
To help close this skills gap, we offer our Learn While You Earn sponsorship program. This sponsorship is designed to support self-motivated individuals who have an interest in starting a career in manufacturing but lack the skills to do so. To be eligible for the sponsorship, the selected candidate must enroll full-time in Quinebaug Valley Community College’s (QVCC) Advanced Manufacturing Program.
As a company with a culture of continuous learning and improvement, this sponsorship is a way for us to support manufacturing education and access to manufacturing careers. Those enrolled in the Learn While You Earn program full-time are provided the opportunity to work part-time at Westminster Tool. The candidate can then directly apply the skills they are learning in the advanced manufacturing program in a manufacturing setting, giving them hands-on experience. If the candidate earns a GPA of 3.0 or higher upon completion of the certificate program, they will receive full tuition reimbursement and the potential opportunity for full-time employment at Westminster Tool.
If you’re thinking “I have no experience with manufacturing, how do I get started?” you are not alone. That was the experience of one of our current employees, Victoria Rooke.
Victoria first discovered an interest in manufacturing while attending Windham Technical High School and studying automotive. Her teachers recommended she visit Westminster Tool to see what a manufacturing company was like. After attending three of our open houses, she knew manufacturing was the career for her.
While still in high school as a student in the automotive shop, Victoria enrolled in a few classes at QVCC in blueprint reading and manufacturing math. After graduating high school, she applied for our Learn While You Earn Sponsorship and began working in our production department while attending the advanced manufacturing program full-time. This gave her the opportunity to directly apply the skills she was learning at QVCC.
After her graduation in 2018, we hired Victoria to work full-time in our production department. In less than a month, she accelerated into our EDM department where she has excelled in improving efficiencies and documenting processes to improve personnel training. Since then, she has risen to the role of team leader and has been leading cross training for the EDM department.
How to Apply
If you or anyone you know is interested in a career in manufacturing and would like to apply for our Learn While You Earn Sponsorship, visit our Apply Today page!
