TCC Magazine - Tacoma Community College

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