Funding Awarded: $94,817

INDUSTRY PARTNERS:

Otter Tail Ag Enterprises,  Bongards Creamery,  Otter Tail Power Company

Key Partners:

MN State Community & Technical College, Rural MN CEP

Project Summary:

In Otter Tail county, workers at three local businesses are being trained in maintenance, boiler operation, maintenance welding, and ethanol theory. This training helps meet the need continually expressed by local employers for skilled maintenance workers to meet production needs and to replace retiring workers.

Project Outcomes:

• 10 participants in Ethanol Training

• 7 Arc Welding students

• 24 MIG (Metal inert gas) welding students

• 11 Boiler operator training students

• 8 Maintenance series students

• Curriculum developed for Maintenance series

Project Description:

Three industry partners - Otter Tail Ag Enterprises, Bongards Creamery, and Otter Tail Power - benefitted from worker training developed and delivered by Minnesota State Community & Technical College (M State) in Fergus Falls.

The two types of training provided were:

1. Ethanol training for a local ethanol plant's production and office workers. College credits are earned by completing the course

2. Maintenance training: boiler operation, PLCs (Programmable Logic Controller) for machine troubleshooting, welding, and pumps & seals

Taking three seemingly unrelated companies and creating training materials to meet those needs has been challenging, according to Dan Eischens, Customized Training Services Director of Manufacturing and Technical Areas at MSCTC. However, they all had similar maintenance training needs and it's a cost effective way to deliver the training.

"Cross-training our employees along with workers from the other three companies gave them a better perspective of their job by talking with people in different fields," said Anthony Hicks, CEO of Otter Tail Ag Enterprises." Even though their jobs are similar, they hear about different aspects of that job."

Some courses were delivered at the college and some were done onsite at the company facilities. "When they brought the training onsite, it enabled our people to work with an instructor one-on-one to perfect techniques that they use in their jobs, such as welding or machining technology. It maximized the value of the program for us," said Peter Wasberg, Director of Human Resources and Safety at Otter Tail Power in Fergus Falls.

Hicks from Otter Tail Ag explains the value of the training to his company, "We started the company with many new employees who did not have experience working in renewable energy before. We employ about 33 people at the plant and this training has touched the lives of 22 of them. It makes them feel like the company is giving back to the employees and to the community in terms of developing quality careers in rural Minnesota."