The Great Lakes Tow­ing Com­pa­ny kicks off the 2015–2016 school year by part­ner­ing with three Cleve­land schools to pro­vide intern­ship and on-the-job train­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties for local stu­dents. With “Back to School” in full swing, edu­ca­tion is top-of-mind, not just for fam­i­lies and edu­ca­tion­al insti­tu­tions but for local busi­ness­es as well. Cre­at­ing a work­force pipeline has become increas­ing­ly impor­tant. This is espe­cial­ly true for the trades indus­tries and some­thing that The Great Lakes Tow­ing Com­pa­ny has a his­to­ry of incor­po­rat­ing into their cor­po­rate cul­ture by part­ner­ing with Saint Mar­tin de Por­res High School (a Cristo Rey Net­work School), Cleve­land Munic­i­pal School District’s Max S. Hayes High School and Cuya­hoga Com­mu­ni­ty College’s Work Force Train­ing program.

The Com­pa­ny has com­mit­ted to its fifth year as a St. Mar­tin de Por­res High School’s Cor­po­rate Work Study Pro­gram part­ner. Stu­dents from var­i­ous grade lev­els work one day a week in dif­fer­ent depart­ments at the Com­pa­ny head­quar­ters to help fund about 50% of the cost of their edu­ca­tion. The rela­tion­ship between the school and the Com­pa­ny is aimed at assist­ing young men and women devel­op habits that give them an intro­duc­tion to the mar­itime indus­try and enable them to be suc­cess­ful and con­fi­dent in col­lege, career, and life.

The Tow­ing Com­pa­ny is also col­lab­o­rat­ing with Cuya­hoga Com­mu­ni­ty College’s Work Force Train­ing pro­gram to aid in the inno­va­tion of the weld­ing pro­gram cur­ricu­lum. With con­tin­u­al changes to tech­nol­o­gy and stan­dards, The Com­pa­ny works with Cuya­hoga Com­mu­ni­ty Col­lege instruc­tors to ensure stu­dents are receiv­ing the most up-to-date train­ing that reflects indus­try mod­i­fi­ca­tions. This year, The Com­pa­ny will also par­tic­i­pate in an intern­ship pro­gram spon­sored through the Mag­net Work­force and Tal­ent Devel­op­ment Pro­gram by Ohio Means Jobs and the Make it in Amer­i­can Grant that the Med­i­na Coun­ty Work­force Devel­op­ment is pro­vid­ing to North­east Ohio weld­ing stu­dents. The grant fund­ing pro­vides up to a max­i­mum of $6,000, per intern. Cor­po­rate part­ners, like The Great Lakes Tow­ing Com­pa­ny can choose to hire interns fol­low­ing the ten-week program.

In addi­tion to work­ing with both Saint Mar­tin de Por­res and Cuya­hoga Com­mu­ni­ty Col­lege, the Com­pa­ny has had a coop­er­a­tive work­ing agree­ment with the Cleve­land Munic­i­pal School District’s Max S. Hayes High School for over 20 years. The Com­pa­ny, in coop­er­a­tion with the Dis­trict and the School, has devel­oped a pro­gram for stu­dents to obtain struc­tured sys­tem­at­ic ship­yard train­ing at the school. Paid sum­mer jobs and full-time jobs are offered to grad­u­ates who obtain their High School Cer­tifi­cate and suc­cess­ful­ly pass weld­ing tests or oth­er indus­try cer­ti­fi­ca­tions. With the open­ing of the new school build­ing this year, The Tow­ing Com­pa­ny is very excit­ed to con­tin­ue the pro­gram and help train stu­dents in weld­ing and diesel engine mechan­ics – skills much need­ed for the Shipyard.

After attend­ing the rib­bon-cut­ting cer­e­mo­ny on Mon­day, August 31, 2015 for the new $48 mil­lion school, Joe Star­ck, Pres­i­dent, The Great Lakes Tow­ing Com­pa­ny & Great Lakes Ship­yard, stat­ed that, “Our busi­ness has grown sig­nif­i­cant­ly over the past four quar­ters, and this growth is expect­ed to con­tin­ue for the next five years – we will need a ded­i­cat­ed and skilled work­force. With great edu­ca­tion­al insti­tu­tions as part­ners, we will con­tin­ue to devel­op a work­force pipeline of edu­cat­ed work­ers. The new Max Hayes school pro­vides a hands-on, ener­getic and inno­v­a­tive envi­ron­ment for the stu­dents. We look for­ward to meet­ing the grad­u­ates from this excel­lent program.”

Ron Ras­mus, Chair­man, The Great Lakes Tow­ing Com­pa­ny & Great Lakes Ship­yard, believes that these scholas­tic part­ner­ships sup­port skilled trades by con­tin­u­ing their lega­cy through Cleveland’s future employ­ees. “As a Cleve­land busi­ness with 116 years of exper­tise in the mar­itime indus­try, The Tow­ing Com­pa­ny has always known the sig­nif­i­cance of train­ing and devel­op­ing our youth in prepa­ra­tion for real-world, good pay­ing careers in the trades. Expos­ing stu­dents to the Ship­yard and teach­ing them inter­per­son­al skills, not only increas­es their growth but allows us to cre­ate a tal­ent pool for us to tap into as we expand our man­u­fac­tur­ing business.”

As a Friends of Max Hayes part­ner, Great Lakes will par­tic­i­pate in the new school’s first Par­ent Open House on Sep­tem­ber 17th from 6pm-8pm, show­cas­ing infor­ma­tion about the Com­pa­ny and high­light­ing suc­cess­ful careers in the mar­itime indus­try. The school is now locat­ed at: 2211 West 65th Street, Cleve­land, Ohio 44102.