Star Engineering relies on its employees’ foundational skillsets to succeed
In 1965 Star Engineering and Machining was founded on a simple idea: to provide customers with quality machined parts. Today, Star Engineering is a multinational company that serves a variety of industries by providing manufacturing services ranging from CNC Machining and Turning to Reverse Engineering. Star Engineering is a precision machining company specializing in mid-to-high volume production runs.
In August, AWMA members sat down with Bryce Isch, CEO of Star Engineering, to discuss their employment opportunities and challenges that they have faced over the past few years. Isch explains the critical element for our company’s success is for our employees to be confident and comfortable with the knowledge to run our equipment and develop the parts to complete our customer’s requests.
At Star Engineering, we serve industries such as turbochargers, oil & gas, mining, magnet wiring, train brakes, energy, heavy load transport, and more. While times continue to change, we stay at the forefront of innovation with our advanced practices and technologies. Our parts are used in various industries, including product developments in the energy sector that focus on reducing energy, thus slowing down our carbon footprint.
Isch said before the pandemic, people looking for entry-level production positions generally had a higher set of skills where they could be trained to meet our production needs. But from what we have seen in the last two years, finding skilled labor is a little more difficult. Many job applicants simply lack the basic technical skills to effectively get candidates up-to-speed on running our machinery at desired production levels.
To address this problem, Isch explains that we had to think differently about bringing more skilled labor into our business. Over the past six months, Star Engineering has met and partnered with Joe Elkins, executive director of AWMA, to see if they can tap into the local Adams and Wells market to find high school students interested in developing technical skills in the manufacturing sector.
For the students and Star Engineering, it’s a win-win. These local students can continue to grow their technical knowledge by applying what they have learned in a real-world manufacturing environment. On the other hand, Star Engineering benefits by giving these new employees the skills and opportunities they need to keep up with their daily demands. With these foundational skillsets in place, on top of the student’s soft skills, such as showing up to work on time and being dependable, this is precisely what Star Engineering is looking for in future employment.
Isch describes that working with students help eliminates bad habits from the beginning and molds these workers to gain the necessary knowledge to succeed while increasing the company’s efficiency and output capabilities.
Star Engineering and Machining is always looking for highly trained and talented team members to help meet their client’s specific project goals. If you are interested in joining their team, please click here to learn more career opportunities.
