University Park, Pa. -- "There's a great future in plastics," a family friend tells Dustin Hoffman's character in the 1967 film "The Graduate." That famous quote holds true. The plastics manufacturing industry is one of the largest in the country, with annual shipments totaling more than $345 billion and more than 1.3 million employees.
In Pennsylvania, the plastics industry employs more than 60,000. To keep the industry competitive, Pennsylvania's Workforce Investment Board and the commonwealth's Department of Labor and Industry are partnering with Penn State on the Pennsylvania Plastics Initiative. Funded with $4.2 million from the U.S. Department of Labor and Pennsylvania's government, the initiative is creating a statewide network of plastics companies, workforce and economic development organizations, and education institutions.
"A key component of the initiative is bringing together Penn State and the state in a single initiative to support one of Pennsylvania's most important manufacturing sectors," said William C. Brock, executive director, Central Pennsylvania Workforce Development Corp., who worked on the initiative's proposal.
As part of the effort, Penn State is offering two associate degree programs and training workshops customized to industry needs at Penn State Erie and Pennsylvania College of Technology, conducting research for the industry and providing scholarships and internship opportunities.
Penn State Erire and Penn College both have existing state-of-the-art plastics technology facilities that offer workshops on such topics as injection molding, plastics materials processing and project management, as well as help companies with product design and development issues. Brad Johnson, who teaches in Penn State Erie's plastics engineering technology program, said the campus's recently expanded plastics manufacturing laboratory -- the largest plastics educational laboratory in the world -- will enhance its ability to work with the plastics industry.
And in addition to offering an associate degree in plastics and polymer technology and industry workshops, Penn College's Plastics Manufacturing Center, established in 1993, has an education program to encourage young people to enter the field. Both Penn College and Penn State Erie now offer scholarships, thanks to the initiative.
Penn State Initiative Project Director Frank Sorg hopes the new model to support the plastics industry will be one other Pennsylvania industries, as well as other states, can use.
This article is from the fall issue of Penn State Outreach magazine. For a complete list of stories, go to http://www.outreach.psu.edu/news/magazine/CurrentIssue/ online.