On May 24th, Utah’s Governor’s Office of Economic Development was honored the Delmonte Award for Excellence. This was announced in a press release prior to the event which read:
The Society for the Advancement of Material and Process Engineers North America (SAMPE NA) is pleased to honor the Utah Governor’s Office of Economic Development with the Delmonte Award for Excellence for their development of the Utah Aerospace Pathways program.
In an effort to address the emerging workforce needs of Utah’s aerospace and defense companies, as well as other companies using advanced materials and processes, Utah’s Governor’s Office of Economic Development (GOED), created the Utah Aerospace Pathway program (UAP). This educational program was developed with the express cooperation from the SAMPE Utah Chapter and several SAMPE experienced composite materials and manufacturing engineers.
The Utah Aerospace Pathways program offers students the opportunity to train and certify in aerospace advanced materials and manufacturing technologies while still in high school, through concurrent enrollment. There exists many aerospace, commercial and industrial jobs in Utah that go unfilled because the workforce is not trained for them.
“Our aerospace sector is growing dramatically, but we don’t have enough labor to meet the demand,” Gov. Herbert said. “This program will make a positive difference to fill those gaps. It is an important investment in education and in Utah’s growing workforce.”
The SAMPE Delmonte Award for Excellence was established by John Delmonte in 1981. It is intended to encourage outstanding contributions in the field of materials and processes throughout the world; to acknowledge major achievements by honoring distinguished individuals in the field of materials and processes; and disseminate those technical achievements among the members of the materials and processes community.
“Utah’s UAP Program is remarkable in its goal to create trained workers our industry needs. This novel partnership is a shining example of the spirit of the Delmonte Award,” said Gregg Balko, SAMPE’s CEO.
Ginger Chinn accepted the award on behalf of the Utah Governor’s Office of Economic Development during the SAMPE 2018 Awards Luncheon on Thursday, May 24 in Long Beach, California. Read More…