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Corporate responsibility // Cover story
Vocational education: changing lives,
strengthening communities
Mike Pritchard knows first-hand the value of vocational education.
CORPORATE RESPONSIBILITY
Growing up in a working-class neighborhood in London’s East End,
he entered a technical education and apprenticeship program
at 16, figuring he’d follow in the footsteps of his father and uncle
who worked at an automobile factory in Essex.
Today, Pritchard is the Director General at the 21st century. Vocational education
the Cummins Filtration Plant in San Luis can provide portable skills that lead
Potosí, Mexico, leading an operation that to high-paying jobs and ultimately
produces 100,000 filters a day. His career stronger communities, consistent with
has taken him to Germany, Spain, Australia, Cummins’ value “to serve and improve
the United States, China and now Mexico, the communities in which we live.”
where he’s working with a local technical
To support these leaders, their communities
college to develop a vocational education
and others like them, the Company and
program like the one where he started.
The Cummins Foundation are partnering
“A solid technical education can be the to start a vocational education initiative
foundation for building a better life,” said in 2012, developing new programs and
Pritchard, who joined Cummins in 1993. working with existing ones around the
“Not only is it important for companies like world to find approaches that will
Cummins who need workers with these achieve positive results.
skills, it can change lives.”
“The evidence shows that the lack of
From Xiangyang, China and Phaltan,
employable skills can be a barrier to
India to Rocky Mount, North Carolina, and success for many individuals and for
Jamestown, N.Y., Cummins leaders have the communities in which they live,” said
been engaged in improving education, Jean Blackwell, Executive Vice President –
from early childhood instruction through Corporate Responsibility and CEO of
university post-graduate programs.
The Cummins Foundation. “Solid technical
training gives individuals a pathway to
Many are focusing on the critical need for
well-paying jobs and it creates a stable
strong technical and vocational education
employment base for our communities.”
programs to help prepare the workforce for
A GLOBAL PROBLEM
A recent report by the World Economic
Forum estimates that 10 million
manufacturing jobs worldwide cannot
be filled today due to skills gaps.
The lack of effective technical and
vocational training programs is a critical
concern at Cummins as it is for many
manufacturers. A recent Company
study estimates that Cummins will need
37 percent more technical workers in
the next three years, including service
technicians, diesel mechanics, shop
floor workers and more.
Cummins’ plant leaders saw early on
the potential for pairing their resource
needs with the needs of their communities.
Ken Anderson, Plant Manager at the
Rocky Mount Engine Plant in Rocky
Mount, N.C., has been working with area
businesses through the local Chamber of
Commerce to bring together high schools
and community colleges in the region to
improve vocational programs.
In addition to Anderson’s coalition
building, three community colleges in
2011 received diesel engines made at
the plant so their students would have
the latest equipment to work on.
“Education is essential to our strategy of
sustainable improvement where we do
business and in the communities where
we live and work,” said Anderson, who
will become Cummins Emission Solutions
Global Supply Chain Leader in August
2012. “And it’s part of educating and
empowering the workforce of the future
and creating the capacity for economic
development in the community. In that
way, Cummins’ involvement is part of
our being responsible citizens.”
Thousands of miles away in Xiangyang,
China, leaders of the Dongfeng Cummins
Engine Company (DCEC) saw the same
potential. The joint venture worked with
local government and education officials
to start a vocational education program to
help teenagers in the Danjiangkou region.
Vocational education students
and instructor Jeff Cook (far
left) gather around a Cummins
engine produced at the Rocky
Mount Engine Plant and
donated to Nash Community
College in Rocky Mount, N.C.
The engine allows students to
learn on the latest equipment.
Cummins leaders have
worked to build a coalition
in Rocky Mount to improve
vocational education.
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