FIT Equipment Donation
FPSA’s Food Industry Technician program (FIT), the industry’s only technician’s certification program, dedicated to the training of individuals to fill vitally needed positions in our industry had another successful year even with the obstacles created from the pandemic. FPSA is in their third class of students, with 100% of the graduating apprentices placed in jobs at OEMs or processing plants within our industry. The FIT program requires students to successfully complete a foundation electrical curriculum, adhere to an extensive interview process, and then if accepted, proceed with FIT capstone classes that include additional electrical training, mechanical, hydraulics, and pneumatics. Currently, the FPSA program is being held at the Lincoln Tech (their educational partner) campus in Indianapolis, Indiana, where they receive extensive classroom education and even more importantly, hands-on training on equipment. They are now looking to expand their efforts to bring even more students into the program, however, to do that, they need your assistance and are asking if your company would be willing to donate equipment so that they can more thoroughly train and prepare students for successful careers in our industry.
We can all agree there is a great need for skilled technicians within our industry and through equipment donations from willing members, they are able to provide a hands-on training program, like no other, for the Association’s members.
Review the below list and consider donating any of the noted excess equipment to their program. As for more details on how you can help them meet their needs and with any follow-up on technical questions, coordinating details, and shipment, please reach out to Bob Greanery, FIT Quality Assurance Advisor, at bobgreaney@comcast.net or Arlene Filiege, Director of Marketing, at afliege@foodindustrytechnician.com.
Food Industry Technician Training Equipment List
Suggested equipment “wish list” list to be included on FPSA’s on-site FIT classroom/lab:
- Electromechanical clutches and brakes
- For any of the hands-on labs, having used, worn, or damaged parts labeled for their normal use/location and reason for failure
- Pumps, assorted types, also fluid transfer pumps, and blending equipment
- Conveyors or conveyor simulator with PLC. Conveyor with pneumatic rejector slot
- Incline conveyor
- Sample of different materials for food processing such as stainless, food-grade plastics, and conveyance belts
- Knives, blades, sharpening tools
- Desktop vacuum sealer or form fill and seal
- Packaging related equipment including horizontal flow wrapper, form fill and seal equipment, carton erector machine and/or product labeler
- Marking equipment, laserjet, inkjet, bar code printers, etc.
- Sanitation equipment-Ecolab, Spartan or other
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Source: FPSA
