In what Los Medanos College President Bob Kratochvil describes as a “longstanding” friendship and partnership, Los Medanos College and Dow Chemical Company in Pittsburg are teaming up as part of a nationwide effort to improve the advanced manufacturing industry.

With the implementation of the Advanced Manufacturing Partnership (AMP2.0), six students from the Process Technology program (PTEC) and two from the Electrical and Instrumentation Technology (ETEC) are expected to receive apprenticeships at the Dow site in Pittsburg starting this summer following graduation according to Dow’s Spring 2015 Impact newsletter.

“The partnership between Dow and LMC has been extraordinary,” said Kratochvil. “We were thrilled when representatives of the Pittsburg campus of Dow came to us last fall with information that its site was among three within its company identified to launch an apprenticeship program.”

To commemorate the continuing partnership, at the student senate meeting Feb. 25, Kratochvil and members of the LMC Foundation acknowledged Dow Chemical Company with a Resolution of Appreciation to recognize the company’s relationship with the college. Representing Dow, general manager of the Pittsburg site, Mike de Poortere, and Randy Fischback of the Public Information Office attended the meeting to share their thoughts on the ongoing commitment towards helping LMC and its students.

“The investment has to be in the students,” said de Poortere, describing what is needed for an increased quality of life for the surrounding community. “This is the opportunity we have. The future is in our kids.”

One of many corporations taking part in the initial run of AMP2.0, Dow Chemical Company is working with PTEC and ETEC programs at community colleges located near their major facilities in the country, providing apprenticeships to selected students who complete the necessary programs.

“Advanced manufacturing is a domain of great potential,” stated a letter from the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) to President Barack Obama dated October 2014, which goes on to add, “the achievement of which will require drawing on resources from the public, academic and industrial sectors all across the country.”

Along with companies such as Northrop Grumman, Caterpillar, Inc. and Honeywell, Dow is also working in the AMP2.0 project by partnering with higher learning institutions like UC Berkeley and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to improve the future of the advanced manufacturing industry in the United States.

“Throughout our history, our greatest breakthroughs have often come from partnerships just like this one,” said President Obama during his announcement of the AMP project in June 2011. Now four years later, this prospect of breakthroughs is coming to light through the partnership between Dow Chemical Company and LMC.

“As the apprenticeship program moves into implementation,” added Kratochvil, “we fully expect LMC students to obtain the benefits of Dow’s efforts.”

With more than 600,000 “unfilled” jobs across the nation, mostly technical according to the company’s newsletter, the apprenticeship program between LMC and Dow is part of the first step in a process to help improve and “enhance” competiveness of the advanced manufacturing industry in this country.

For more information on AMP2.0 visit www.manufacturing.gov.