Students at Proviso West High School, in Hillside, Illinois, have earned thousands of manufacturing certifications, taken top prizes at industry competitions and been placed into local apprenticeships since their school was awarded an SME PRIME® (Partnership Response in Manufacturing Education) program in early 2022.
Since then, teacher April Senase has built the program into a Midwest mecca for manufacturing training. She has placed 29 of her students into apprenticeships with local manufacturers, and in the 2022-23 school year alone, her students earned a total of 3,886 industry credentials — compared to 567 in 2020, when she came to the school after working as a CNC machinist specialist for 25 years. “Our school district spans three schools, and 78% of the credentials coming out of the district come out of my classroom,” she says.
Plus, Senase’s students have been competing in — and winning — industry competitions. Recalling an SME Bright Minds Student Summit competition her students participated in two years ago, she says, “I took 14 teams of students that time, and eight of the top 10 teams were my students — which was pretty cool. That year, six of my students won individual 3D printers.” Last year, she says, her students participated in a digital Student Summit during October, which is Manufacturing Month. “It was their first time doing it, and it was amazing,” she remembers. “All my students participated in it, and we took third place in the nation.” The prize was $1,500, which Senase used to buy an additional 3D printer for her classroom.
Proviso West partners with several local manufacturing companies to help provide support and context for students participating in the school’s SME PRIME program. A key program supporter, BorgWarner Inc., contributed nearly a third of its funding. Additional program support is offered by Dynamic Manufacturing Inc., Principal Manufacturing Corp. and Tri-Gemini. Since being awarded the SME PRIME program, Proviso West has received a plethora of instructional resources, including a tailored curriculum plan and related curriculum resources. The school also received a classroom set of student-built, kit-based robots, a Stratasys 3D printer, a Snap-on Precision Measurement Classroom Kit and multiple virtual welders. In support of a new welding lab, the school received eight welders, weld booths, personal protective equipment and a plasma cutter.
The SME PRIME Curriculum Plan emphasizes authentic work experiences for students, with internships and job shadowing encouraged in the fourth year. Senase has worked hard to make such opportunities available. One of the things she is most proud of is having helped her SME PRIME students find jobs. “With the contacts I have in industry, I negotiate roles for my students,” she says. “I go out and pound the pavement myself and find apprenticeships their junior year that can lead to jobs their senior year, and I work those relationships to get companies to pay for their trade school. None of my kids have had to pay any money out of their own pockets for any kind of training. I have the knowledge of how to do that, so why make them go into debt when they don’t need to?”
Participation in SME PRIME has already paid off for some of Senase’s students. One of them, a senior, was already familiar with working in a shop environment, as his father owns a granite company that creates countertops and other products. But when he received OSHA certification through SME PRIME, he received a boost in pay, because he’s the only one at the shop to have that certification. He also has been able to get side jobs doing stone work, because he now has the necessary precision measurement skills.
On average, Senase says, about 120 students per year enroll in the school’s SME PRIME program. Regarding the value it brings to them, Senase says, “It provides a lot, being that Proviso West is a lower-income school. There were a lot of things we needed, and SME PRIME has come in and been able to help with that. It’s brought a lot of resources in here that we would never have had, and that’s unheard of in this type of community.”
“SME PRIME brought a lot of resources that we would never have had.”