Bosch Rexroth helps Charlotte students discover careers in engineering and manufacturing
Mike Thompson10/11/2021USA | DC21013
Special event at Bosch Rexroth Advanced Manufacturing and Technology Center at Olympic High School highlights opportunities and resources to inform and encourage students at every level to pursue STEM education and career paths in manufacturing and engineering
Presentations, robotics demonstrations and new online information tools were showcased at a special event on October 8th at the Bosch Rexroth Advanced Manufacturing and Technology Center at the Olympic Community of Schools in Charlotte, NC. The Center provides valuable opportunities for students from Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools to learn about manufacturing and engineering careers.
The event was designed to highlight the efforts by the Olympic Community of Schools and the Charlotte-Mecklenburg School District to help students at every level appreciate how many fulfilling and satisfying opportunities exist for them to follow as engineers and technical associates working for today’s leading manufacturers, including many in the Greater Charlotte Region.
The Bosch Rexroth Advanced Manufacturing and Technology Center is a key resource for helping expose students to these opportunities. It is the only high school facility of its kind in the region that has a dedicated machine shop and a K-12 business alliance specifically aimed at providing resources and pathways to apprenticeships and engineering careers.
The Center provides Olympic High School students with hands-on experience using state-of-the-art manufacturing technologies, including the latest in metal-cutting and finishing technology, multiple lathes, milling machines, saws and grinders, along with metrology and quality-control stations.
Support from businesses and manufacturers from across the Greater Charlotte region have helped make the Center a critical resource in helping the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools address skill gaps at a grassroots level. With 7,500 unfilled manufacturing jobs in the area, according to the regional workforce development board Charlotte Works, and about 85,000 STEM-related unfilled jobs in the region, the Center is part of a timely effort to expand the STEM talent pool, while simultaneously fostering upward economic and social mobility.
To help students understand how their career journey could take them on a rewarding path into engineering and manufacturing professions, Bosch Rexroth recently launched an online resource that helps students to learn about possible roles, their functions, minimum education requirements and average earnings.
The site also provides information on apprenticeships at Bosch Rexroth and links to the greater STEM and IoT communities in Charlotte.
“Like many manufacturers in the Greater Charlotte region, as well as across the country, we face a constant challenge to fill key technical positions in our manufacturing operations,” said Greg Gumbs, president & CEO of Bosch Rexroth North America, who was the keynote speaker during the event.
“The strategic partnership between Bosch Rexroth and Olympic High School, represented by our ongoing support since the founding of the Advanced Manufacturing and Technology Center in 2015, demonstrates the critical importance we place on investing in these kinds of initiatives. A partnership between business and schools fosters economic and social mobility for youth, while simultaneously helping expand the local talent pool.”
In addition to providing annual funding, Bosch Rexroth engineering and manufacturing professionals dedicate personal time to mentor and volunteer in support of local nonprofit STEM and educational institutions, including programs at Olympic High School and their K-8 feeder schools.
Pictured L to R: Casey Jones, Principal, Olympic High School, Earnest Winston, Superintendent, CMS, Ashlee Campbell, Asst. Director CMS CTE, Jennifer De La Jara, CMS Board of Education At-Large, Greg Gumbs, President & CEO of Bosch Rexroth North America.
As one of the world’s leading suppliers of drive and control technologies, Bosch Rexroth ensures efficient, powerful and safe movement in machines and systems of any size. The company bundles global application experience in the market segments of Mobile Applications, Machinery Applications and Engineering, and Factory Automation. With its intelligent components, customized system solutions and services, Bosch Rexroth is creating the necessary environment for fully connected applications. Bosch Rexroth offers its customers hydraulics, electric drive and control technology, gear technology and linear motion and assembly technology, including software and interfaces to the Internet of Things. With locations in over 80 countries, more than 31,000 associates generated sales revenue of around 6.2 billion euros in 2019.
Basic Information Bosch
The Bosch Group is a leading global supplier of technology and services. It employs roughly 395,000 associates worldwide (as of December 31, 2020). The company generated sales of 71.5 billion euros in 2020. Its operations are divided into four business sectors: Mobility Solutions, Industrial Technology, Consumer Goods, and Energy and Building Technology. As a leading IoT provider, Bosch offers innovative solutions for smart homes, Industry 4.0, and connected mobility. Bosch is pursuing a vision of mobility that is sustainable, safe, and exciting. It uses its expertise in sensor technology, software, and services, as well as its own IoT cloud, to offer its customers connected, cross-domain solutions from a single source. The Bosch Group’s strategic objective is to facilitate connected living with products and solutions that either contain artificial intelligence (AI) or have been developed or manufactured with its help. Bosch improves quality of life worldwide with products and services that are innovative and spark enthusiasm. In short, Bosch creates technology that is “Invented for life.” The Bosch Group comprises Robert Bosch GmbH and its roughly 440 subsidiary and regional companies in some 60 countries. Including sales and service partners, Bosch’s global manufacturing, engineering, and sales network covers nearly every country in the world. With its more than 400 locations worldwide, the Bosch Group has been carbon neutral since the first quarter of 2020. The basis for the company’s future growth is its innovative strength. At 129 locations across the globe, Bosch employs some 73,000 associates in research and development, of which nearly 34,000 are software engineers.
