ST. MARYS — St. Marys Area School District will be receiving funds through Pennsylvania’s Manufacturing Training to Career Program (MTTC) for a new program to allow students to explore the various areas of manufacturing. Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf announced Tuesday that the district will receive $200,000 for this project, which is set to start in the 2022-23 school year.

“This great new program will give Saint Marys students hands-on experience in manufacturing,” said Wolf. “Programs like these create a pipeline of talent to help ensure that manufacturing continues to flourish in Pennsylvania.”

This pilot program, which will be known as Dutch Manufacturing, will engage 210 students over the course of the grant period. The program will not be part of the Career and Technical Education (CTE) programs already in place in the district, but it will work hand-in-hand with those programs.

“This will be a non-CTE program, but a complement to our CTE program,” said St. Marys Superintendent Harley Ramsey. “Students will create a student-run manufacturing enterprise; they will interface with businesses and respond to proposals to manufacture parts. Then, they will collaborate with our drafting program and our precision machining program (which is a career and technical program) in order to produce parts.”

Ramsey provided details on the area of manufacturing that will be the specific focus for this endeavor.

“Since we’re in St Marys, which is a very sintered metal driven community, they will be working a lot with different manufacturers in the sintered metal realm,” Ramsey said. “They will also get a 20-hour sintered metal credential. They will get a panoramic view of powdered metal manufacturing in general: powder through to manufacturing and shipping. We are working towards internships and work-based learning experiences also.”

Ramsey explained that the program will work with leaders and businesses throughout Elk County, rather than just in St. Marys. There are some businesses who have already been in touch regarding potential partnerships.

“We held a luncheon for industry and community leaders in December. We had 36 different organizations represented. From there, that guided our progress toward writing this grant and developing the program,” Ramsey stated. “We have a followup next Wednesday with leaders in the area, some of the same and some new.”

Over the course of an academic school year, students will learn about and perform different job functions in manufacturing, develop essential skills, utilize advanced manufacturing technologies and build relationships with local companies.

“Our goal is to have this program become a registered pre-apprenticeship, to give students the ability to articulate to apprenticeships at many of our local plants,” Ramsey said. “It’s not just machining, which is one of the big misconceptions. It is mechatronics, industrial sales, and of course more traditional machine operation — these are all pathways that the students will have available to them.”

Wolf’s Manufacturing PA initiative was launched in October 2017, and since then has funded 63 projects and invested more than $14.4 million through the Manufacturing PA Training-to-Career Grant program.