Portland Community College | Portland, Oregon

Plastic Industry Make Valuable Training Gains

Photos and story by James Hill

by James HillOrra Stark smiled widely when Dan Jones, president of the Plastics Education Consortium, handed Stark her training certificate at completion ceremony this March. Despite working a graveyard shift at plastics company JAE Oregon, Stark managed to squeeze in twice-weekly evening classes at PCC last winter to become more proficient in her industry. Stark, along with 16 other students who all work on production lines involving plastic parts and fixtures, put in 93 hours of coursework this winter. The group held a completion ceremony to celebrate their successful completion of the training at the college’s Workforce Training Center at the Capital Center in Beaverton. A Vancouver, Wash. resident, Stark works as a set-up technician for JAE Oregon in Tualatin and runs a production line that makes plastic moldings. She said she received great benefit from the training. "It was a big help to be in these classes,"she said. "I enjoyed instructor Sal (Gonzales), who was a complete professional. He explained things in an easy, hands-on way. It has really improved my work, making me a faster and better part producer."Another student, Richard Fieldhouse, who is a foreman and technician at M&N Plastics, said he found the courses "to be very informative on plastics and how the process is supposed to work in a variety of different injection molding machines."The Plastic Education Consortium consists of Vision Plastics, R&D Plastics, ABC Plastics, JAE Oregon, Puget Plastics, Polycast, Gage Industries, and RCI. The college’s Customized and Workplace Training program in collaboration with industry and the Oregon Economic and Community Development Department developed the partnership to provide continuing education opportunities for employees in the plastics industry. The instructors are usually industry people and the students are mostly operators and technicians.