Educator Boot Camp connects Fostoria teachers with local manufacturers

• Mennel Milling
• NSI Crankshaft
• Custom Glass Solutions
• Charter Steel
• Callies Performance Products
• ProMedica Fostoria Community Hospital

They ended Thursday with a presentation on what they took away from the experience, which gave them first-hand knowledge of what their students could be curious about.

“Whenever kids are wondering about their future, and we are all helping with that, we can answer those questions, get those carrots out there,” Aaron Weidner, assistant director of the Fostoria Academy, said. “Prepare them for what they’re actually going to have the opportunity to do.”

“These educators are spending, sometimes, five, six, seven hours a day with the students,” Kibler said. “And if we can get to them and better educate them, it’s just a trickle down, it will get to them. And once they know about those opportunities, that’s when we’re going to start seeing that growth.”

And for the participating businesses, programs like these are a vital initiative to help develop a local workforce instead of relying on recruiting from outside the region.

“Getting that local presence and building that local pipeline is exactly what we need to be successful, not only today but years in the future,” Haley Felter, HR generalist for recruitment at Mennel Milling, said.