College partnering with Intek Plastics
Dakota County Technical College received a $260,096 grant from the Minnesota Job Skills Partnership (MJSP) to fund training for Intek Plastics employees at the company’s facility in Hastings, Minn.
Pat McQuillan, director of the Continuing Education and Customized Training division at Dakota County Technical College, and the Center for Professional and Workforce Development at Inver Hills Community College, reported that MJSP awarded the grant March 3, 2014.
“This is welcome news for the college and Intek Plastics,” McQuillan said. “The training will give Intek employees the skills they need to move up and take on more responsibility in their company. At DCTC, we will be able to customize our current courses while developing new courses, allowing us to ramp up our capacity to provide key industry skills training to other companies in the manufacturing sectors. Congratulations to Kathy Carlson, the business and management coordinator at DCTC, for her tremendous work on this project.”
From the MJSP Funded Projects and Grant Management Web page:
Intek Plastics, located in Hastings, is a premiere custom plastic extrusion company best known for providing high quality, precisely engineered, customer-specific products. Intek also provides components used by manufacturers in a wide variety of industries with products that include window squeegees, residential windows and doors, retail store displays, commercial refrigerators and hockey arena dasher boards. With 153 current employees, the company expects to hire 12 new workers over the next three years as the housing market bounces back and Intek adds new production lines.
Intek is aggressively working in new markets to generate revenue in areas such as the commercial refrigeration, agricultural production and lighting industries. MJSP funds will support a partnership with Dakota County Technical College (DCTC) to develop and deliver new and customized courses for all employees (153 current; 12 new).
Training will take place at Intek, with the exception of Computer Basics training which will be offered on-line. Courses include: Extrusion Operations 1, 2 & 3; Plastics Troubleshooting; Engineering for Tool & Die; OSHA Industrial Safety; Electrical Troubleshooting; Managing for Sustainability; Hot Work/Shop/LOTO Safety; and Culture Change. Training will provide much-needed skills and result in a prepared workforce needed to successfully expand the operations of Intek. Trainees will gain durable skills and have the opportunity to advance to higher level positions. The customization of existing courses and development of new courses will increase DCTC’s capacity to deliver industry-demanded skills training for other manufacturing sectors.
For more information about Continuing Education and Customized Training at Dakota County Technical College, contact:
- Kathy Carlson
Business & Management Coordinator
651-423-8549