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Ford/Lawrence Tech Partnership Targets Potential Engineers

12 September 2000

Ford/Lawrence Tech Partnership Targets Potential Engineers, Managers As Early As Freshman Year

    SOUTHFIELD, Mich., Sept. 11 Ford Motor Co. and Lawrence
Technological University on Sept. 13 and 14 will launch the second year of a
special partnership aimed at identifying potential engineers and managers as
early as their freshman year, and providing them a head start on their
competition.
    The pact is designed to increase the number of Lawrence Tech graduates
qualified for high-in-demand, high paying manufacturing jobs in engineering
and industrial management with the giant automaker.
    The effort kicks off with a dazzling display of Ford's high tech plans and
products Wednesday and Thursday, from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. at Lawrence Tech's
campus quadrangle and Buell Bldg. Atrium.  The partnership, among just a few
nationwide, targets students as early as the freshman year with job shadowing,
parallel co-op, and senior project opportunities.
    Lawrence Tech is the first university in the United States to provide a
parallel co-op program at Ford, which features part-time and summer employment
at the automaker while earning an LTU engineering degree in as few as four
years.
    Several of Ford's top concept vehicles illustrating specific engineering
advancements are planned for display during the kick off, and Lawrence Tech
alumni working for Ford will field student questions.
    Matthew Dula, a Grosse Pointe Woods sophomore majoring in mechanical
engineering, enrolled in the first group of parallel co-op students as a
freshman last autumn.  He's working in Ford's Global Paint Engineering
Department.
    "This exposure to my major field is tremendous," Dula said.  "Imagine what
four years of experience like this looks like on a resume compared to
'flipping burgers.'  I was surprised how willing everyone at the office is to
help me, how I'm treated as an equal."
    Dula admits he was probably once biased against Ford products because no
one in his immediate family happened to drive them.  "But working for Ford,
it's been eye-opening," he says.  "I am absolutely considering a career now
with Ford.  There are great opportunities there."
    Mathew DeMars, director of Ford's truck manufacturing operations and a
1978 mechanical engineering graduate of Lawrence Tech, leads the company's
effort at his alma mater.  He is similarly enthusiastic and said the goal of
the partnership is to enhance the automotive experience for students and to
help Ford, "identify, select, and hire the best available talent.
    "We aim to make Ford the 'employer of choice' for LTU students, and
recruit the very best talent to carry this company into the 21st Century,"
DeMars added.
    "This partnership is a further expansion of a relationship that goes back
to Henry and Edsel Ford in 1932," said Charles M. Chambers, Lawrence Tech
president.  "In addition to helping attract current students into challenging
and lucrative high tech careers, Ford's initiative bodes well in increasing
the number of students who might consider engineering and manufacturing
management as a profession."
    Chambers said that Lawrence Tech regularly places upward of 97 percent of
its graduates each year and that there is a tremendous unmet demand in
industry for more engineering and manufacturing graduates.