Building the Next Generation of Engineers to Solve Customers’ Design Challenges
Athena offers a variety of workforce solutions to introduce and retain talent, such as our internship and apprenticeship programs. We have something else up our sleeve: an effort to educate the next generation of engineering talent and bring on new team members to keep up with production.
Our leadership team is actively involved in the following initiatives:
A partnership with the engineering program at Texas State University
A robust mentorship program for engineering graduates joining our workforce
We’ve invested in these programs to support our internal teams and produce results for our customers. With the most talented engineers on board, we can offer the most comprehensive DFM support possible.
Athena’s Work with Young Engineers at Texas State University
Athena President Bill Johnson sits on the manufacturing engineering advisory board of Texas State University’s Ingram School of Engineering. Decision-makers at the brand-new Mechanical Engineering program sought support from industry leaders to establish an impactful curriculum. Bill, who majored in Mechanical Engineering himself, embraced this opportunity.
Our Insight Gained
Engineering curriculum: Something that Bill noticed about this program is that its course offerings blend mechanical engineering courses with business classes and generalized studies. In his work with Texas State, Bill has suggested ways these programs offer a more specialized education in an area of engineering that appeals to them. The university has been receptive to Bill’s feedback, so we look forward to seeing how this input impacts the program in years to come.
Our Work
Real-life applications for engineers in training: Under Bill’s leadership, Athena Manufacturing sponsors a senior design project. In this setting, students are placed in groups to solve various problems, one of which was pitched by the Athena team. This has given Bill a terrific opportunity to support these students, providing an indoctrination to the “real world” of engineering and offering suggestions to encourage them to do the best work possible.
Recruiting opportunities: A tangible result that Athena’s work with Texas State has yielded is a pipeline of educated, eager, young talent to join our forces. In our time with Texas State thus far, we’ve hired one recent graduate full-time and brought another on board in our machine shop.
Valuable Mentorships for Recent Engineering Graduates
Athena Manufacturing welcomes young engineers from schools aside from Texas State. Over the years, we’ve hired students from several excellent engineering programs and offered mentorships to guide their early engineering experience.
Our Insight Gained
Book smarts vs. practical knowledge: We’ve noticed that many of the country’s premier engineering programs emphasize more hours of classroom experience and less hands-on application than the program at Texas State. There’s certainly nothing wrong with this approach, but it has informed us that different graduates have different strengths and areas of growth.
Our Work
Robust mentorship programs: At Athena, we understand that not every undergraduate engineering program will offer the same type of education. That’s why we tailor mentorships to what we perceive to be knowledge gaps for each new engineer. For example, if an engineer joins us from a program that prioritizes rigorous classroom-based learning, we offer more hands-on, practical training. Conversely, a new engineer with ample hands-on experience might benefit from gaining more academic and analytical knowledge. We believe there’s value in balancing the academic with the practical in contract manufacturing. When a scope of work has a great deal of technicality, it’s beneficial to approach it with academic wisdom. On the other hand, hands-on experience is instrumental to understanding how a part gets made, what tools to use, what materials work best in specific applications and so on.
The Impact of These Engineering Programs
Athena Manufacturing developed these programs to support our engineering services, particularly to:
Support our own recruiting and retention efforts
Improve our customers’ design and engineering outcomes
Attracting and Retaining Engineering Talent
Over the past five years, Athena has done fantastic work at what we call “incubating” engineering talent. We have become methodical with onboarding and mentoring programs to offer young engineers a chance to thrive.
Hiring and holding onto the most insightful engineering team ensures we can meet customer demand. With top-tier engineers at work, Athena Manufacturing can continue to deliver for years to come.
Improving the Outcomes of Our Contract Manufacturing Services
Having talented engineers onboard is as essential as having highly trained machinists. Engineers with the ideal combination of book smarts and practical knowledge yield measurable results for our customers, such as:
Cost-effectiveness: A perceptive engineer notices overtoleranced dimensions and other costly features in a design and offers the DFM support to make adjustments that can significantly cut costs.
Decreased risk: Well-trained engineers recognize potential risks when analyzing customers’ designs. When they notice these issues early on, as a skilled engineer should, they can adjust designs accordingly right away.
Trusted support: Even a single conversation with our engineering team helps our customers feel confident that their components are in the right hands.
Contact the Athena Manufacturing team to learn more about how our engineering support contributes to our customers’ success.