Latest news with #HoosierCrane
Washington Post
06-07-2025
- Business
- Washington Post
Trump wants more apprenticeships. Indiana is going all in.
ELKHART, Ind. — Ever since Ty Zartman was little, people told him he had to go to college to be successful. But despite earning straight A's, qualifying for the National Honor Society and playing on the high school football and baseball teams, the teen never relished the idea of another four years in school. So in fall 2023, he signed up through his Elkhart, Indiana, high school for an apprenticeship at Hoosier Crane Service Co., eager to explore other paths. There, he met co-workers who didn't have four-year degrees but earned good money and were happy in their careers.
Yahoo
15-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Concord, Baugo present work-based learning apprenticeship programs to state leader
ELKHART — Secretary of Education Dr. Katie Jenner visited Concord schools on Tuesday to learn more about the district's preparations toward Indiana's new graduation requirements and celebrate accomplishments recently made in the district. 'Really it comes down to some key things of how do we help every student to know their value, know the possibilities for their life's path and really help them discover their purpose and set them on that best path for success,' Jenner said. 'It's keeping kids number one every single day, all the time, and connecting them to their dream job.' Superintendent Dan Funston told her about the district's invitation to be a part of the Carnegie Foundation's Future High School Network among just 24 nationwide and brought students and staff alongside him to discuss how the district is redesigning the high school experience with help from the Indiana Department of Education. One of those students was Concord alumni Bianca Jimenez-Ortiz, who spoke about her time at Concord in the apprenticeship program. Jimenez-Ortiz graduated from Grace College on Saturday and was the nation's first paralegal apprentice graduate, through the Horizon Education Alliance. 'Even being at college, I was able to test out of some criminal, business law and baseline classes because of the experiences that I had at the prosecutor's office,' she said. 'I was the first paralegal apprentice in the United States, which is really exciting.' Jimenez-Ortiz said she's been seeing doors open for her continually. 'It's truly the greatest testimony of what this program does and how investing in it is something that we should be doing,' she said. Jimenez Ortiz was joined by younger cohort students: Taylynn Calhoun, a first-grade and paraprofessional educator-apprentice at Ox Bow; Karen Villanueva, a third-grade and paraprofessional educator-apprentice at West Side; Will Delio, work-based learning student at Elkhart Environmental Center and the Aquatic Biology Lab at Elkhart Public Works; Lucas Prough, work-based learning at Notre Dame Mass Spectrometry & Proteomics Facility; and Ty Zartman of Jimtown, a second-year apprentice at Hoosier Crane. 'It's important to have these work-based learning experiences to create connections in your life,' Prough said. 'Having these connections in high school is going to impact my future largely.' Todd Cook of Hoosier Crane joined Zartman at Concord to talk about the business' partnership with HEA and the schools. Hoosier Crane has one of the longest running apprenticeship programs the schools offer. 'We've done internships at Hoosier Crane over the years; we've probably had 30-40 interns over the years in my 18 years there,' he said. 'The youth apprenticeship program came to us about six years ago. The concept, the idea, honestly, I embraced it wholeheartedly as a leader in the organization because it self-served.' Cook said the internship program would simply introduce students to business and then they'd move on. With the apprenticeship program, they're training students to do what they do and today about 10% of the workforce nationwide is youth apprentices. Cook said interestingly, the team members also perform better when apprenticeships are around. 'They don't want to take shortcuts, they want to show you how it's done,' he said. 'This is how you do it the right way … So it's risen our existing talent in our own employee base throughout the company and really.' Jenner said that businesses across Indiana are shifting, like Hoosier Crane from interns to apprenticeships, because it creates a better return on investment. Becca Roberts, Concord High School College and Career Readiness adviser, said 145 students interested in apprenticeships were vetted by guidance counselors and then 20 were interviewed. 'I'm here to say to businesses, we need you. The kids are eager to learn in an actual work-place setting,' Roberts said. Baugo Community Schools Superintendent Byron Sanders also stopped by with some of his district's students and employees the districts partner with. 'All of this work Concord does in Elkhart County, we're duplicating a lot of work, so it's important for us to work together and Baugo's been a major partner in everything we're trying to do,' Funston said. Funston said Concord has 22 apprentices and Baugo has 14, and said he believes it might be the most in the state. 'We have a system that doesn't create redundancies,' Sanders added. 'It's been a problem for schools. Everybody's tasked with the same responsibility to try to get exposure for students and then we seem to bombard our business partners in the community with district after district after district trying to do the same things and so we recognize that working together is smarter and not harder.' Funston also announced during the visit that West Side Elementary School was reported as the highest achieving 50%+ EL school in the state of Indiana. With an IREAD percentage up over 20%, Funston said they anticipate testing later in the year to be over 35%. Jenner also visited West Side to celebrate their success and discuss early literacy.
