A Closed Door Reopened?

February 3, 2016

Here in Alexandria, Virginia, I have the good fortune to live close enough to AICC’s office to be able to walk there, and from time to time I do. On my route I pass George Washington Middle School, which at one time was the principal high school serving this small city. In one of the wings of the school there’s a beautiful old stone doorway, now blocked by a large bush, with the word “shop” inscribed above it. Not only is the word “shop” prominent in its art deco design, but along with it are carved the symbols of industry—gears, hammers, and compasses—the tools with which our great industrial might was built.

There was a time in our educational system when shop classes were a normal and valued part of our secondary education curriculum, so much so that they merited a dedicated and decorated entranceway. I took drafting and machine shop during my years at Sandusky High School, for example, and those of my classmates who chose to do so could elect an entire vocational education track for their four years, be it metalworking, welding, drafting, or machining.

George Washington Middle School in Alexandria, Virginia, at one time the
city’s high school, long ago planted a
bush to close the door to what was once the school’s industrial education wing.

Our industry offers opportunity, for our industry needs skilled workers like the ones who were able to enter their shop classes through that stone doorway long ago. Proof that skilled worker training in our industry is needed is the sold-out AICC Machine Maintenance Program that we sponsored in Chicago last June. We can also take cues from a couple of AICC members who have taken matters into their own hands: President Container Group in Middletown, New York, offers remedial mathematics and plant skills education for local graduates, with a promise of a job later when they pass the final exam. Acme Corrugated in Hatboro, Pennsylvania, works in the community to scout and teach high schoolers about the job opportunities available in their plants. These are admirable and needed initiatives, done as only independent entrepreneurs could do them.

Our industry’s fine educational foundation, the International Corrugated Packaging Foundation (ICPF), is making great strides at creating educational opportunities at four-year colleges and then placing these students in internships and full-time positions in member companies. This is excellent work. But plants need qualified maintenance people, electricians, machinists, and press operators just as much as they need designers and higher managers, and they are becoming harder and harder to find.

So, what’s the solution? How about AICC carving its own stone door with the word “shop” inscribed above it? Not in a physical sense, but symbolically, by developing an industry apprenticeship program—a structured program that members can use to recruit, train, and mentor high school graduates into skilled plant workers. To me, this is an exciting prospect, for we will be able to make a positive impact on a group of students overlooked in the rush to college, and provide members with the needed skills in the workers they need.

Let’s reopen that closed door. Let’s cut down that bush.