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Portland Development Commission representative visits Sylvania

Photos and story by Kate Chester

Kevin Johnson, a senior program manager with the Portland Development Commission, toured the Machine Manufacturing Technology Program at the Sylvania Campus in late January. His visit was led by Machine Manufacturing instructor Pat Kraft and Division Dean of Math and Industrial Technology Dan Findley. Johnson got to chat with student Rob Moser, who is dual-enrolled in the program through С��è��ý and Oregon Institute of Technology.

Johnson paid the visit to Sylvania to get a better sense of the Machine Manufacturing Technology program, the skills taught to its students and its enrollment numbers. The city of Portland hopes to create several thousand more manufacturing positions in the next decade, he said, especially in the metals industry. To support this, talks are under way for С��è��ý and the Portland Development Commission to host a symposium this spring for industry and local community colleges that have manufacturing and engineering programs. The symposium would be at the Sylvania Campus.

“We want to get a real sense of what industry’s needs are, as well as the local resources – such as our community colleges – to deliver on these needs,” said Johnson. “A ‘meeting of the minds’ could help us create this bridge.”