LIMA, Ohio (WLIO) — Future engineers and construction managers got a firsthand look at what a day on the job really looks like.
Students from Ohio Northern University toured several manufacturing and construction sites, including the Wilson Football Factory, International Tank Service and the new American Township Fire Department, which is currently under construction. At the fire station site, students walked through the building, reviewed site plans and spoke with project managers and firefighters about the project.
The tour is part of the “Tour of Industry” course, a required class for students in manufacturing, robotics and construction management programs. Students say the hands-on experience helps connect what they learn in the classroom to real-world careers.
“I think it’s very important because you go into the real world and see what it’s like in real life, and you’re like, this is exactly what our professors are teaching us,” said Baret Helms, a construction management student at Ohio Northern University. “It makes you kind of confident, the fact that you’re learning stuff that’s important that you’re actually going to apply in real life.”
“They have lecture, but they also have plenty of lab time,” said Douglass Degen, professor of construction management at Ohio Northern University. “Within this, they see a real-world application. They get to see subcontractors that are using their trades to be able to build things like this. It’s building America. It’s part of our environment. We love new facilities, and we need students to rise to the occasion and take the place of those practitioners that are in there right now.”
Another group in the course will travel next week to St. Joe, Indiana, and Pioneer, Ohio, to tour more manufacturing facilities.
