TCC Magazine - Tacoma Community College

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$MATH PLACEMENT REVIEW GUIDE - Tacoma Community College$

TCC Foundation Donors 2007-2008, continued Kimberly Ward Jeanne & Duane Warner Lilly & Jack Warnick Linda & Steve Washburn Alan Waugh Wendey Weathers Joe Webb Olga & Norman Webstad Karla & William Webster June Weled Laura Weselmann Emily West Denise Wester Marilyn Westervelt Annette B. Weyerhaeuser Frederick & Ki Hyen Whang Karyn Whitacre S. White Steve Wilkinson William Mitchell Photography Steven & Dara Willis Darrell Willits Patty Wilson Roger & Sharon Wilson Wineglass Cellars Carol Wissmann Ruth & A. James Witsmeer Jean Witte Woodward Canyon Allen Woolf World Cultural Interaction Marjorie Wright Y Don & Dianne Yaw Anna Ybarra & Pamela Ralston Lois Yoshida Christine & Calvin Young Iris & James Young Jayme Yount Z Mel & Fred Zanjani Jennie Zecher Caryl Zenker Richard Zimmerman Ed Zittel 14 TCC Magazine Fall 2008 Moving into Management Training a New Generation of Leaders at General Plastics Todd Roppo, a Senior Sales Engineer at General Plastics in Tacoma, is one of 25 General Plastics employees chosen for a management training program administered by Tacoma Community College. Writes Eric Hahn, Vice President of Organizational Development at General Plastics: “The Job Skills Program is the foundation for our leadership development and succession plan. The coursework provides critically needed instruction in the areas of leadership development, supervisory techniques, manufacturing basics, finance and materials planning.”
At General Plastics, a Tacoma institution for over fifty years, they’re quite self sufficient. They make 90 percent of their own tools. They transform rigid foam and other plastic products into an astonishing variety of applications, from the 400 different gap seal configurations used in airplane interiors to the plastic components of the underwater robotics systems used in homeland security operations. They run their products through onsite tensile tests, flammability tests, and compression tests. They cross-train their workers in the use of dozens of specialized machines. But when the time came to train a new generation of managers, they decided to call Tacoma Community College. Todd Roppo, a Senior Sales Engineer at General Plastics, is also a management trainee. “Right now the company is going through a transition. They’re trying to foster the next-generation leaders for the company,” explained Roppo. To that end, General Plastics partnered with Tacoma Community College to set up a seven-module course, taught onsite by TCC instructors. TCC’s Corporate and Continuing Education Department hires experts in specialized fields to provide onsite and on-campus training to local businesses. Typically, a business will partner with the college to design a customized training program. Topics covered in the General Plastics program range from “Supervisory Essentials” to “Process Improvement” to “Finance Improvement.” As part of the Job Skills Program, the training program is partly funded by a $48,000 grant from the State Board for Community and Technical Colleges. The twenty-five General Plastics employees chosen for the course will receive a certificate upon completion. They’ll also receive 8 college credits that can be applied toward a college degree. “Perhaps an MBA at some point,” said Roppo, who received a BS in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Washington. “The ultimate goal would be to keep moving up the management ladder.” The management trainees meet for a three-hour class once a week, using a conference room that doubles as a multimedia classroom. Their program is scheduled to continue through June 2009. Roppo explained that the group is currently wrapping up the second training module, on leadership. “We have homework, and a test at the beginning and end of each module. But since it’s onsite training, it has to be a little more user-friendly.” While Roppo enjoys the enthusiastic presentation of useful information in class, he believes that the program’s most important benefit is that the learning takes place with his co-workers. “It fosters teamwork,” said Roppo. “The group is a real cross-section of the company. In this class we interact on a work level, but also on a personal level. People on the floor have a different perspective than I do.” Roppo’s classmate Dan Hesser agrees: “The opportunity for teamwork in this class - it’s priceless. I can really see how it’s had a lot of impact on the company in the last couple of months.” TCC Corporate and Continuing Education Clients: Boeing Carlson Paving Products Chicago Title Insurance Company Chief Leschi Schools City of Renton City of Tacoma Community Health Care First Choice Health General Plastics Manufacturing Company KeyBank Kitsap County Consolidated Housing Authority MCMNW Metro Parks Tacoma Orting School District Pierce County Pierce County Health Department Pierce Transit Port of Tacoma Puget Sound ESD #121 Puyallup Tribal Health Red Wind Casino Schnitzer Steel Industries STOPWA Tacoma Public Schools True North – Student Assistance and Treatment Services Washington State Association of Counties Washington State Department of Personnel Washington State Transit Insurance Pool (WSTIP) For more information contact: Ron Asahara, Director Corporate & Continuing Education rasahara@tacomacc.edu 253.460.4469. Fall 2008 TCC Magazine 15
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TCC Magazine - Tacoma Community College

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