Hi all! Just another article showing how enthusiastic we are about the Baldy View Regional Occupational Program. This article was taken from the Distribution Group newsletter, the Distribution Center Management. Here at Hubcaps.com , we have been using students from the ROP for over three years now and it’s such an awesome program. If your company has an ROP program nearby, we highly recommend you checking it out. It’s great for the company and great for the students!
Educational program helps train employees for DC jobs.
Managers looking for a good source of quality recruits should investigate local educational programs. For example, the Baldy View Regional Occupational Program in Rancho Cucamonga, Calif., has been training new warehouse employees for more than a decade.
Richard Brodeur teaches a distribution and warehousing class that focuses on entry level distribution and warehouse skills. This includes everything from the basics of SKUs to receiving, stocking, packing, shipping, lifting and loading techniques, transportation systems, and essential business forms.
But this is more than just classroom training. The students also spend several weeks onsite working in a warehouse. Although they typically work as unpaid interns a few hours a day, this isn’t “free” work for the warehouse, since the students still have to be supervised and trained in specific warehouse practices.
Over time, the list of companies that participate in the program has grown from three to 30. Even more impressive, there are 70 to 100 companies always interested in graduates of this program.
Brodeur says that involvement from participating companies is essential to the program’s success. Several have volunteered to serve on an advisory board. This helps Brodeur formulate lesson plans and curriculum.
Rick Mefferd, owner of Hubcaps.com, started participating in the program when his son went through the training. He now uses students in his DC. “It’s an incredible program. It’s a win-win situation. You bring kids in here and you can actually see if they fit in your business,” Mefferd raves. You’re helping them at the same time, training them and giving them very valuable skills.”
“When you run a business, it’s pretty irritating trying to hire somebody,” adds Mefferd. “In the past, I’ve done newspaper, I’ve done Monster.com, and I’ve been very discouraged there and very encouraged with this avenue.”
April
Hubcaps.com