Lozier Corp. marks 10 years of helping Omaha-area high school grads get into trades jobs

Workers were retiring faster than the company could replace them.

Their solution, rare at the time in Omaha, was to provide full-ride scholarships to students pursuing a career in the trades at Metropolitan Community College.

The company gave the students real-world experience through a paid internship at Lozier and hired them full time upon completion of the program. Sponsored students earn an associate degree from Metro’s Industrial and Commercial Trades Program.

Heading into their 11th year of the program, Lozier officials say the Sponsorship for the Trades Program has been a success. The program, they say, has provided a third of the company’s maintenance and tool and die technicians while giving high school graduates a cost-free path to what can be a lucrative career.

Lozier’s solution blazed a trail that other companies have followed, said Jim Champion, pathway coordinator for Metropolitan Community College.

“It’s amazing how far it’s come in in the amount of time since Lozier kind of paved the path for everybody following them,” Champion said. “But there’s many companies now that are doing this style of sponsorship program, and it’s growing every day.”

There are now 55 companies that offer some sort of sponsorship program at Metro, he said.

The companies determine the specifics, such as the classes a student needs to take, whether it’s full or part-time, and whether the student must earn a certificate or an associate degree.

Hannah Bolte, director of marketing and communications at Lozier, said that over the decade, interest has risen in the trades as a viable option to a four-year college.

“There are lucrative career opportunities that may or may not be widely known,” Bolte said. “I definitely think that tide is turning. Kids are more interested, and they’re learning more about it and taking it home to Mom and Dad, who are open-minded to this, especially once they see that it is viable, it pays well, it is a steady job.”

Lozier’s sponsorship students start out at $18.81 an hour, she said. After completion of the two basic core classes, they move to GV Apprentice pay of $26.44 an hour. Upon graduation from the program, they are offered a GV Journeyperson role starting at $28.56 an hour depending on shift.

Beyond that, they have opportunities to move up the pay scale to earn as much as $34.71 to $38.79 an hour, depending on the shift, she said.

Adam Thompson, 28, was in the first class sponsored by Lozier. He is a tool and die technician on second shift.

He and his team build most of the tooling in the plant — that is, machinery that is used to produce the products that go out to customers.

Headquartered in Omaha, Lozier manufactures products used by retailers in stores and warehouses, including shelving and storage systems and checkout systems.

Thompson’s dad, a diesel mechanic, had taught him to work with his hands and encouraged him to consider the trades.

Nearing graduation, the other students in his high school class in Logan, Iowa, were getting college scholarships to big schools. He wasn’t sure about his future, but he knew he didn’t want to go into debt.

The Lozier program was too good to pass up, he said.

It proved to be a good choice, he said.

“I was able to buy a house at only 23 years old,” he said. “I have three pretty-new cars.”

He doesn’t stress about money. The job is stable.

“In fact, I have a wife at home who’s able to be a stay-at-home mom, take care of the kids, because I have this job that pays me so well,” he said.

Kristen Andersen, 18, a 2022 Omaha Benson High School graduate, is currently a student in the program.

She heard about the program at an Omaha Public Schools career fair.

“I was stressing myself out a little bit, applying for scholarships while trying to figure out exactly what I wanted to do, but this kind of made everything fall into place,” Andersen said.

She’ll graduate from Metro next spring with a degree in electrical mechanical maintenance. She’ll be working on machines, making sure they keep running, troubleshooting to keep production going.

She, too, is a hands-on person. Many of her relatives work in the trades — mechanics, plumbers, electricians, sand blasters, painters, welders.

“So growing up I got to experience a little bit of everything,” she said.

Her relatives in the trades careers always seemed a little less stressed about work, she said.

She, too, was happy to avoid student loan debt.

Each year, Lozier shines a spotlight on the students entering the program. Students are honored at a “signing day” event put on by the college in a manner similar to athletes signing to a four-year university.

For manufacturers, partnering with two-year colleges is “the way of the future,” Bolte said.

“You have to think differently, and partnering with education institutions like MCC is a way to secure a pipeline, not just for people coming in, but to develop people that already work for you, if they’re interested in maybe pursuing a different career field.”

Bolte said people often ask what happens if the sponsored employees end up leaving for another opportunity after fulfilling their contract.

“Our response is always we see it as an investment in people, an investment in the industry,” she said.