March 27, 2019
Governor’s Work-Based Learning and Apprenticeship director will
tour VU Technology facilities
VINCENNES, Ind. - Purdue Polytechnic Vincennes will host Darrel
Zeck, executive director of the Office of Indiana’s Work-Based
Learning and Apprenticeship in the Indiana Department of Workforce
Development, on April 3. Zeck serves as the executive director of the
program which was created in 2018 by an executive order from Indiana
Governor Eric Holcomb.
Zeck will tour the Vincennes University Technology Center with
Scott Wallace, coordinator of VU’s Precision Machining Technology
program, and Ty Freed, dean of VU’s College of Technology. VU’s
Precision Machining Technology program is one of the few in the United
States to offer specialized training in manual machining, CNC
machining, metal stamping die, and plastic injection mold building.
Zeck will also visit with Purdue Polytechnic Vincennes students
about their career aspirations and how their associate degrees from VU
and their baccalaureate degrees from Purdue will help them achieve
their goals.
The Office of Work-Based Learning and Apprenticeship, located
within the Department of Workforce Development and part of Gov.
Holcomb’s NextLevel Agenda, serves to develop and implement a
framework of various work-based learning pathways for youth and adult
populations. To accomplish this, the office concentrates on three
objectives: coordinating efforts and partnering with the U.S.
Department of Labor to expand registered apprenticeships; developing
flexible and scalable programs that focus on the state’s key economic
sectors and regional high-wage, high-demand occupations; and building
public-private partnerships to increase business and industry
engagement with education systems.
Purdue Polytechnic Vincennes boasts a placement rate of more
than 99 percent and a retention rate of more than 97 percent.
Graduates of this program have gone on to successful careers in their
fields, graduate school, and non-profit organizations, and have
enhanced the economic viability of the region, state, and nation.
There were no Purdue Polytechnic campuses in the west-central
or southwest regions of the state until the Purdue Polytechnic
statewide system was expanded to Vincennes University in 2009, making
Vincennes the ninth Purdue campus statewide. This program, like the
others, was created to meet the unique workforce demands of the region.
Purdue Polytechnic Vincennes directly addresses the statewide
skills gap, the oft-repeated concern of industry leaders who want but
are unable to hire qualified employees for manufacturing positions.
Since its inception, Purdue Polytechnic Vincennes has provided a
world-class Purdue education in the Southern Wabash Valley, allowing
students access to Purdue University services, including study abroad
opportunities and career services as well as course
offerings/professors and Purdue’s Blackboard online course management system.
Students graduating from Purdue Polytechnic Vincennes over the
past seven years have contributed to the state’s economy, particularly
in the west-central and southwest regions. Students have parlayed
their Purdue bachelor’s degrees into graduate studies, positions in
their fields, as well as employment in Indiana’s multinational
automobile organizations, including Toyota, Honda, and Subaru.
Information about Purdue Polytechnic Vincennes is available by
contacting interim location director Jim Tanoos, jtanoos@purdue.edu,
or 317-989-7726.
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Vincennes University Newsroom
VICKIE PUFFER, Communications Coordinator & Online Newsroom
Manager
812-888-4162 office, 812-887-4635 cell,
VUNews@vinu.edu, vpuffer@vinu.edu
MARCIA MARTINEZ, University
Life Reporter & Sports Information Director
812-888-4164
office, 314-599-1519 cell, VUNews@vinu.edu, mmartinez@vinu.edu
VINCENNES UNIVERSITY, Department of University Relations, www.vinu.edu/newsroom