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Amerequip, a manufacturer of custom equipment for the lawn, landscape, agricultural and construction markets, will receive the Northeast Wisconsin Manufacturing Alliance's Youth Apprenticeship Award at the "Excellence in Manufacturing Partnership Awards" on Wednesday, October 30th at the KI Convention Center in Green Bay.
The award is one of several to be given out at the event, which will spotlight best practices of manufacturing/education partnerships throughout the New North region. Amerequip has a long standing commitment to ongoing educational programs. In particular, Amerequip has been an active participant in several innovative internship and apprenticeship programs offered through the State of Wisconsin and several of Wisconsin's technical colleges.
Lakeshore Technical College nominated Amerequip for the award for its partnership with the Sheboygan Youth Apprenticeship Program, which provides training and job skills while students are in high school. The firm currently has five high school apprentice students training with them in the areas of welding quality assurance, engineering, assembly and machining, with the goal of growing the program to 10 students annually going through the Amerequip program. Former apprentices have now joined the company full time and one is continuing his education at Lakeshore Tech while working at Amerequip. As a result of Amerequip's lead in the YA program, other small local manufacturers have joined the effort, with 65 students now participating in the program.
"Rather than complain about the lack of skilled technical workers, we decided to do something about it," said Mike Vander Zanden, president/chief executive officer of Amerequip. "Working with the technical college system, area high schools and area manufacturing organizations, we can and are making a difference. Helping prospective and current employees gain the right skills for today's technology-based manufacturing jobs not only helps us as a company, but it also helps the employee, as well as the local community which benefits from having good-paying jobs in their backyard. We would like to thank Jill Preissner, youth apprenticeship coordinator for Lakeshore Technical College, for nominating us for this award. We are honored to be recognized for our efforts and congratulate the other award winners for their commitment to educational partnerships."
The Youth Apprenticeship Award is being given by the NEW Manufacturing Alliance, a group of manufacturers working with educational institutions ,workforce development boards, chambers of commerce and state organizations to promote manufacturing in the Northeast Wisconsin region. The group's vision is to unite Northeast Wisconsin manufacturers to strengthen the area's position as a world-leading region of advanced manufacturing opportunities.
Amerequip provides design and engineering services, along with production and manufacturing, of custom equipment for international and national customers in a wide variety of industries. The firm operates four facilities in New Holstein and Kiel with more than 155 employees.