We all want to feel as if we are making an impact with our chosen career path. Young engineers have endless possibilities of how they can help society. In fact, in the Emerson Survey “3 out of 4 respondents said they believe that manufacturing jobs are important to the U.S. economy and 6 out of 10 agreeing that manufacturers should do more to train and prepare their STEM workforce.” For some students getting a degree in engineering, the rigorous engineering courses may not allow them to see themselves solving real-world problems. Some industries may struggle to find the right engineering students due to engineering student retention.
The Need for Young Engineers
It can be challenging for industries to find young engineers. When students often choose other majors such as business, health, and social sciences. It’s essential that industries start to get young engineers excited about how they can solve real problems, which is why DMS began the engineering internship program. The program aims to set students up for future success within the company and ensures an exciting career path for them.
DMS Engineering Program
The DMS engineering program began in March 2017 by CEO Doug Rhoda and Vice President of Mechanical Engineering, Joshua Cirbo. They both felt a need to help young engineers and expand the company. The program teaches them how to apply their knowledge and gain practical skills by going through a series of stages. These stages challenge them but also help them learn how to solve problems. Each intern will know how to work in all departments on the production floor such as grinding, mechanical and electrical assembly, machine shop, and plastics shop. The program is individualized based on the student’s educational experience and the demand of each department.
“We built the program for two reasons the first being to build our talent; it’s getting much harder to find people to fill the roles we have, we found it is easier to build our talent. The other reason was we wanted to give back to young engineers since we’ve been in their shoes once.” –Joshua Cirbo Vice President of Mechanical Engineering
Once the interns complete the program, DMS typically sees them stay within the company by going to our service department. Once hired into our service department, they learn the voice of the customers and the maintenance of our machines.
“They then have a strong foundation with a ton of experience to go anywhere they want to within the company while still fulfilling our needs.” –Cirbo,
Plans For The Future
Since the program is relatively new, the plans are for the program are to expand and mature over time.
“We want to work out the kinks, making it a smoother process for them and we try to get feedback from our interns so we can improve the program for others.”– Cirbo
The internship program allows students to be flexible by working 15 hours minimum. Numerous colleges across the nation also offer the Co-op program. The participating colleges in Colorado that offer the Co-op program in engineering are Colorado State University, University of Colorado Boulder, and the Metropolitan State University of Denver. The Co-op program allows students to combine classroom education while also gaining work experience in their career fields. Interested in joining our internship program? Please contact us.
