News from ATI
Food Consortium
Not all of ATI's students walk the paths of the Wooster campus. Sometimes ATI goes to them.
ATI's Business Training and Educational Services program offers continuing education and workforce training, often going on the road to extend its reach. In January, a $117,000 grant from the Ohio Board of Regents has provided a boost to its Food Processing Training Consortium.
"We started the consortium last year when we began to recognize a real need among different food processing companies for the same kinds of training," said director Kim Sayers. "These companies often can pull only a handful of people off the line at the same time and still keep production going, so in order to get a large enough group for a training program, we work with all of the companies to schedule a program they can all take part in." The companies split the cost and reap the benefits.
It's free for companies to join the consortium, Sayers said, which currently consists of Frito-Lay, Wooster; Gerber's Poultry, Inc., Kidron; JM Smucker Company, Orrville; Sandridge Food Corporation, Medina; and Smith Dairy, Orrville. Training programs focus primarily on industrial needs, including hydraulics, pneumatics, industrial electricity, PLCs (programmable logic controllers), industrial motors and motor controls, welding, and troubleshooting. But ATI also offers programs on other types of skills, such as workplace communication and LEAN process improvement training.
While the Regents grant specifically supports the food processing consortium, ATI offers training for a wide variety of professions.
"We have programs for all types of manufacturing, not just food processing," Sayers said. "And we offer training for the service industry. Nursing homes have asked us to do LEAN process improvement training, productivity sessions, strategic planning, and leadership development. Sometimes these programs lead to one-on-one coaching for a core group of supervisors."
In addition, through a partnership with the Ohio Landscape Association and the Ohio Nursery & Landscape Association, the ATI program administers national certification testing from the Professional Landcare Network (PLANET) for professional landscapers to become Landscape Industry Certified Technicians.
Business Training and Educational Services started in 1989 as a continuing education arm of ATI. For more, contact Sayers at sayers.1@osu.edu or 330-287-0100, or "like" Ohio State University ATI Business Training & Educational Services on Facebook.
--By Martha Filipic

ATI Students Find Internships, Jobs in Emerging Green Energy Sector
Liz Szado was a horse science major at ATI when she decided to apply for an internship with quasar energy group in Wooster because she "didn't want to go home in the summer." The Cleveland native's plan had been to transfer to Ohio State's main campus upon graduation in 2010. This all changed, however, when she was offered a full-time position with quasar--which runs a green energy research lab and a biogas plant in collaboration with OARDC.
In her time with the company, Szado went from feeding small research digesters to learning from OARDC graduate students how to run the machines and do testing. Although much different than her intended major, she saw the technology as a positive step for the future with amazing possibilities.
"The digesters take waste products no one else wants and turns them into usable energy," said Szado, who is now a senior lab technician. "This is the leading edge of technology right now."
A Cleveland-based company, quasar is the first tenant of OARDC's BioHio Research Park, an initiative put into place to commercialize technology with economic development potential. The company has also partnered with ATI to create a renewable energy curriculum to teach students about biomass and conservation technologies. In addition quasar is offering internships and, sometimes, jobs to current ATI students.
"This partnership (with ATI) allows us to combine agriculture and biological research with an emerging industry in Ohio," said quasar lab manager Mark Suchan. "The ATI students we have hired have been professional, willing to learn, and have truly contributed to the success of our growing company."
Arthur Stoller, a second-year dairy science major at ATI, took general employment as a lab technician over an internship because it would not count toward his major. "The (biomass conversion) technology is still immature in the United States, while it is highly developed in Europe, but it has huge possibilities," he said.
Stoller's advice to other students: "Although it may not be your career choice, you can learn from any internship and create lasting connections in other industries, which later on may prove to be helpful."
--By Siera Marth