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 University programs assist maquiladoras and the Valley
By Jennifer L. Solis
The University of Texas-Pan American (UTPA) offers services to assist the growing needs of the maquiladora industry. With services from the Center for Continuing
Education (CCE), the Center for Manufacturing (CFM) and the engineering department, the maquiladora industry can continue to thrive in the Rio Grande Valley.
At the CCE, the purpose is to extend UTPA's educational resources to the community. This is achieved by offering a wide range of continuing and professional opportunities in the areas of skilled and professional
development and personal enrichment.
"We're the support arm of manufacturing. About 90 percent of our work is with maquiladoras or people who supply the maquiladoras," said Dean
Kleven, director of corporate training at UTPA's International and Continuing Education department.
With more than 100 students enrolled, corporate training provides specific
education to assist companies primarily in manufacturing. The courses include production, inventory management, purchasing, quality control and general
management. They are held at the maquiladoras and at the UTPA campus.
"It's a big cooperative effort supporting the community, the industry and the college. The idea is to make us the focal point," Kleven said.
The certificate programs started about three years ago and are tailored to support businesses in the Valley.
"Right now, the emerging demand is for manufacturing," he said.
A training center was opened in Hidalgo to make it convenient for people who want to enroll in the program.
"We're making it walking distance from the bridge. This convenience allows
the students to cut down on their driving time, get to class on time and also alleviates them from having to buy the $5 insurance everytime they cross the border," said Sylvia Soria, corporate training instructor.
These training programs are tailored to help people deal with diversity, conflict, collaboration and how to get the job done.
"People feel that they can come to UTPA and get something that's
professional," Kleven said.
Some of the programs that are offered under the Corporate Training Center include QIC (Quality Improvement Consortium), and APICS (American Production and Inventory Control Society).
QIC's goal is to provide ISO-9000, an international quality standard obtained through a certification process. ISO stands for International Organization for Standardization. These standards apply to a company's
quality management system, not its product, so it can be applied to every company, whether it is in the manufacturing or service sector. This system is
meant to improve a business by having higher-skilled employees as well as helping to generate more business.
"Smart Jobs fund is a grant that was awarded to QIC in efforts to train 675
workers in the Valley and is on-going," Kleven said.
Employee training for class one is being taught in Edinburg, while class two is being held in Brownsville. Classes are also being set up in Harlingen and Weslaco.
"Through this grant, we're tying South Texas together," Kleven said.
APICS helps optimize time through products, courses and networking, as
well as other services. People enrolled in APICS include engineers, production, quality control and human resource managers.
"The key to success is APICS because it teaches you the way to manage
resources while satisfying customer needs," said Sabrina Resendez, a maquila manager and a recent APICS graduate.
"We started changing the way we did business at the maquiladora and it
improved the company," Resendez said. "Because of the great results, the company decided to expand and build another building, which allows us to do more business."
"The CFM also provides support in this area to manufacturing companies," Kleven said.
Some of the support is in services, like designing an invention and plant layouts.
"Some companies come to us and ask us to do this and then they give us a contract," Kleven said.
One of CFM's objectives is to enroll people at UTPA.
"We enroll people from maquilas, manufacturing and business. For instance, Zenith enrolled 20 people in the master's engineering program at UTPA," Kleven said.
UTPA's engineering department provides technical services for research and development.
"These are services that are not easy to come by in the Valley because we
don't have that kind of research and development. Most of the plants are in Mexico and the research and development is done up north. So we're able
to provide special technical services at our engineering school," Kleven said.
All programs at the UTPA department of engineering are ABET (Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology) accredited. With only
14 of these programs in the nation, it's the only one of its kind in Texas.
"The objective in engineering is to give each student the opportunity to have
'real world' experience, whether its through an internship, co-op, or as a senior project," said Arnold Pedraza, director of the Center for Manufacturing.
There is a high demand for engineers.
"Last year, a little over 40 student engineers graduated, but we should be graduating about 400 because of the high demand," he said.
This summer, the engineering center is going to be used for advanced
programs. The engineering building is equipped with the best technology, materials and labs.
"It's basically a small manufacturing plant," Pedraza said.
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