Hiring Hoosiers is an initiative from RTV6 that works to connect Hoosiers to employment opportunities, career development resources, training programs and educational paths. Learn more about Hiring Hoosiers and see new stories weekdays at 6 a.m. on RTV6.
SEYMOUR — Hiring Hoosiers is RTV6's commitment to explore career options, expose barriers to the workplace, and educate on the many training programs. One program in Seymour, in particular, has seen many successes this year.
One such company in Jackson County allows the risk of failure and celebrates the successes.
In Seymour High School, students are pressed to impress because their skills are in high demand.
'Owl Manufacturing' operates inside Seymour High School. Under the guidance of two teachers, the company made up of about 57 students who works with at least seven area companies on projects that provide real-life, real-time experience.
"A lot of the hands-on learning, the process of it, taking an item from a concept to a finished product, to delivery, using specific tools and equipment that the industry recognizes," Jeremy Wischmier, Owl Manufacturing adviser, said.
"They're getting experience of what a first, or second, or maybe even what a five-year employee gets," Curt Schleibaum, Owl Manufacturing teacher, said. "Because they really take ownership of this company every year as students and drive what it is that we're going to produce."
From printing t-shirts to the production of plastic pieces — Owl Manufacturing has saved the school district thousands of dollars.
"The school maintenance team came to us, and they had a problem with the air handler. That this little, tiny, controller piece keeps breaking because they're starting to get some age on the controllers," Schleibaum said. "They asked us if we can reverse engineer it and 3-D print it. Which our team was able to do, and each of those controllers cost $800 — we were able to print it for a matter of a couple bucks. This is a lot of the different types of projects that we are working on. It's really real-world."
There's always room at the drawing board for ideas to explore risks and successes.
In keeping with their mascot the Owl, these students are wise to the reality that spreading their wings in this environment benefits their school system and their future plans.
Gov. Eric Holcomb visited the school in may, praising the students and the program for their work.
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