AfTEr high sChOOL
Opportunities
Abound
high DEManD for skilled workers in
manufacturing increases the payoff for
advanced education after high school.
“There are very, very few skilled machinists in this part
of the world,” says Centex President Rich Phillips. “Because
we do medical devices, they have to be made perfect. For
medical implants, ‘close enough’ isn’t close enough.”
A
fter Rick Gutierrez graduated from high school in
Amazing Work
Comanche, he wasn’t sure what he wanted to do. For a
“We decided a number of years ago that we got the best
while he worked on a farm, repairing equipment and
results by ‘growing’ our own employees,” says Phillips.
doing other chores.
“So we teamed up with the TSTC campuses in Waco
“My dad kept pushing me to do something else,” says
and Brownwood, which both offer two-year programs in
Gutierrez, and when the farm laid him off, he decided to
manufacturing technology. We found that, if we hire their
go back to school. “About five years later my dad said, ‘The
students, we can put them with one of our more experienced
farm didn’t really lay you off, I told them to fire you, so
employees and bring them along quickly. We’re so anxious
you’d be forced to go do something else.’ He actually had
to get the students that normally we offer them full-time
me fired!”
employment and full benefits.”
It was a drastic move, but it paid off for Gutierrez. He
That’s how it went for Gutierrez. “My teacher referred
enrolled in courses at the Texas State Technical College
me to Centex, and they hired me over the phone. I went to
(TSTC) campus in Brownwood. He started working toward
have a look, and I said, ‘Yeah, I’m in.’ It’s amazing work they
a degree in industrial maintenance, but became interested
do here.”
in the machining courses he was taking. “I ended up loving
it, making something out of nothing,” Gutierrez says.
Directions to success
Gutierrez switched to computer numerical control
There are any number of different routes after high
(CNC) machining work at TSTC, earning an associate’s
school to employment in manufacturing, ranging from
degree in two years, and quickly learned that it’s a high-
employment right out of high school to advanced studies at
demand field.
a university.
One company in the area that is constantly on the
For instance, says Rufus Lamere, chair of TSTC Waco’s
lookout for skilled machinists is Round Rock’s Centex
mechanical engineering technology department, “We have
Machining, a high-tech operation that manufactures parts
a one-year machining certificate program that is strictly to
and devices for orthopedic surgery, including full hip- and
get people trained so they can get out in the shop and start
knee-joint replacements.
working right away. We also have a two-year associate’s degree
that requires about 18 hours of academic courses.”
sOuth tExas cOLLEgE
In general, says John Hansen, a former researcher in
manufacturing who now heads the University of Texas at
In mcallen esTablIsHed ITs fIrsT bacHelor’s
Tyler’s Ingenuity Center, “two-year programs are oriented
to careers as a technician, machinist, and tool-and-die
degree program In 2005: THe bacHelor of
manufacturer, and there are quite a few of those.”
applIed TecHnologY In TecHnologY managemenT. “Our students can choose all different types of careers,”
Lamere says. “We have people who go to work, for example,
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