FORT WAYNE – Four local defense contractors are reaching out this week to high school math and science teachers to help them connect the dots between classroom lessons and real-world jobs.
The Industry to Educators Externship program is allowing 15 instructors to visit the local employers and learn how the building blocks they teach students are used to create sophisticated systems designed and manufactured by members of the Northeast Indiana Defense Industry Association.
A high-quality workforce attracts new customer contracts, Raytheon’s Dale Anglin told participants during an orientation session Monday morning.
“Filling those positions with northeast Indiana students reduces costs and promotes economic growth,” according to a slide in Anglin’s presentation.
Participating employers are Raytheon, BAE Systems, Northrop Grumman and ITT Defense & Information Solutions. The teachers will spend one day at each employer, then end the week by visiting Indiana Tech, where the program will invite parents and students to a resource fair.
The program, which began in 2007, was created by Raytheon. This is the first year other companies have participated. More have shown interest and might participate in the future, Anglin said.
Goals include establishing a rapport among participating employers and key high schools and middle schools, developing relationships with faculty in those schools, attracting students as future employees, encouraging students to study math and science, and making resources available to classrooms.
The teachers – representing five schools in Allen County and seven from other counties – will tour operations and participate in hands-on lab assignments. Each session will focus on “teachable nuggets” of information they can use in the classroom. Organizers want teachers to have a good answer when students ask: “When am I ever going to use this in real life?”
Participating teachers will receive a $500 stipend. The money was provided by the Talent Initiative, a 10-county regional program that promotes education and training in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. The program was started by a $20 million grant from Lilly Endowment Inc.
Bruce Menshy, Raytheon’s operations director, said engineering is the lifeblood of most participating employers.
“The reason we have the defense companies in the region is talent. So talent drives business,” he told the teachers. “We need to keep that pipeline going.”
