Manufacturing Their Future: Students Get Firsthand Look at Jobs

SALEM, Ohio – Above the din and clang of stamping press machines and precision laser cutters, Joe Terlecky, a supervisor at CQL Manufacturing, explained to students some of the quality metal products the plant currently produces.

Formerly Quaker Manufacturing, the company was purchased by Compco about seven years ago. And then Liberty Steel bought into the plant, as well, forming CQL.

Emphasizing both the safety and quality assurance protocols used at the plant, Terlecky showed the students some of the large stamping machines shaping blanks into automotive, truck, bus and motorcycle parts. Students got to see laser cutters and robotic equipment creating specialized parts and watch the employees, both men and women, in a variety of skilled roles.

“There is a row of presses we’re about to walk by. They are about 1,100 tons apiece,” Terlecky told the students who were touring the facility. “They’re stamping out an upper console to a semitruck. It takes seven people and two presses.”

The tour was part of the Manufacture Your Future event, hosted annually by the Columbiana County Career and Technical Center in conjunction with the Columbiana County Educational Service Center’s Business Advisory Council. Students from across Columbiana County were able to tour two of eight industrial manufacturing facilities Thursday.

As they toured the CQL plant, Terlecky said he could see some of the students’ attitudes changing from skeptical to interested in the machinery, robotics and process.

“I think it’s important for them to see it and to at least have some background into how things are made. It’s hard work,” Terlecky said, adding younger people often shy away from these jobs. “I just want the kids to know this is out there and you have the opportunity no one had with these STEM programs. Take advantage of it, even if you go to college.”

Terlecky started his own career in computers and eventually transitioned into robotics. He still takes occasional classes through grant programs that offer training at the Mahoning County Career & Technical Center and the Excellence Training Center at Youngstown State University, where he said he always finds new or better ways of doing things.

He encouraged the students to attend their local technical schools and gain skills they can use to make good money, even if they use it as a stepping stone to paying for college. Jobs at CQL start at $14 per hour, but Terlecky explained how quickly someone can increase that wage with time on the job and by learning additional skills.

Earlier in the morning, Jackie Ruller, executive director of the Excellence Training Center, and Lindsey Ekstrand, director of the IT workforce accelerator, spoke to the students about opportunities for training at YSU to get the types of jobs students would see during the tours.

The event kicked off at the CCCTC, where students heard from U.S. Rep. Michael Rulli, R-6th, followed by state Rep. Monica Robb Blasdel, R-79th.

Rulli said many students do not know what they are going to be doing in five years and there are a lot of great jobs in manufacturing.

“You have a chance to make $100,000 a year within five to seven years if you show up for work, if you do your job right and you get into manufacturing. Right now, you are so desired – you have no idea,” Rulli said, adding there are 60,000 jobs available, mostly in manufacturing, in the northeastern Ohio region.

Rulli pointed out that manufacturing skills can lead to jobs all over the world.

Robb Blasdel encouraged the students to take in everything and ask plenty of questions at the manufacturers who welcomed them to visit. Besides CQL, participating companies were Butech, Ventra, CTM, MAC Manufacturing, Hickey Metal, Compco and Pennex.

“We are very fortunate to have wonderful facilities right here in Columbiana County that make interesting things and develop new technologies,” Robb Blasdel said, adding that  other places in the state are interested in the guidance and career training students in Columbiana County are getting.

Students were given a tour of the new Information Technology and Cybersecurity lab and the Interactive Technology and Emerging Media lab at the CCCTC, which completed the project with part of a $1.45 million Career Technical Education Equipment grant it received from the state in March.

“The potential that you have to be successful right now is astounding,” CCCTC Superintendent Jeremy Corbisello told the students.

Pictured at top: Joe Terlecky, left, supervisor at CQL Manufacturing in Salem, leads a tour of students from East Liverpool, Wellsville, Leetonia and the Opportunity School through the industrial plant Thursday.

Copyright 2024 The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.