Olivia Arias originally thought about pursuing a career in occupational therapy and healthcare, but the closings, job losses and tumult of COVID-19 convinced her to seek more stability.
“A lot of my family work in the process industries, and I noticed that my dad still went to work every day during the pandemic,” says Arias, who graduated in May from Joliet Junior College southwest of Chicago, where she earned two-year degrees in process control and instrumentation technology (PCIT) and electrical, electronic and automated systems (EAS). “I was also in my first fieldwork rotation as an occupational therapy assistant (OTA), but I didn’t like it. So, I found my brother’s book on control and instrumentation, and I liked it and switched from OTA to PCIT.”
Arias’ father and two of her brothers are also JJC graduates, where they earned EEAs and operations engineering technology (OET) degrees. Following her recent studies, she’s also an instrumentation technology co-op at ExxonMobil in Joliet, where she hopes to eventually be hired full-time. Arias was also president of JJC’s ISA club, which competes against teams from other colleges in contests involving analyzers, wiring electrical circuit boards, operating PLCs and troubleshooting valve positioners.
“I saw my dad at all our sports games. He’s always been very present, and seems to have a good working life and financial stability, as well as the chance to use his intelligence,“ explains Arias. “I always wanted to help people, and now I have the chance to do it in a different way than I thought. I believe our perspective as students is that we’re not waiting to be handed opportunities, and are using available resources to earn degrees and certifications, and find full-time jobs.”
More equipment for better hand-on training
Though the process industries and other manufacturing sectors are still coping with a lot of attrition, educators at several community colleges report they’re presently in better positions to fill those workforce pipelines.
“This is because instrumentation deployments are increasing due to end-users knowing they have to be more efficient,” says Joe Limon, technology department chair and coordinator of the Process Control Instrumentation Technology (PCIT) program at JJC. “However, it also means bringing in the skills, people and teams to operate, monitor and maintain those technologies, and that’s why we’re growing.”
As usual, PCIT offers the same three to five sections of increasingly specialized instruction, each with an average of about 70 students. The first is a process-industry overview on pneumatics and instrumentation, closed-loop process control, roles and responsibilities, calibration and other basic topics. The second section covers electronics, 4-20 mA networking, guided-wave radar level measurement, ultrasonic, flow, measurement, transmitters, and valve safety. The third combines all the previous topics on your PID tuning, and shows how all these devices work together to optimize production processes and anticipate problems. Sections four and five cover specialized industrial networking and more analytics.
“We’ve got the same core classes but we’ve expanded our subject matter, and operate more equipment and labs. We also added analytical classes for measuring application performance, but we can’t bring in process gases and liquids, so we’re trying to give our students more hands-on, onsite learning experiences. For example, where we used to teach PID tuning theory, we bought a trainer last year with an onboard controller that they can actually tune.”
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ISA Will-DuPage continues assistance
In addition to JJC’s support in facilities the PCIT program continues to receive crucial assistance and input, from the ISA Will-DuPage chapter, whose members have supported the program for many years with mentoring, equipment and labs, and teaching many of its classes. Students can even join an ISA club at JJC.
For instance, when transitioning from laboratory processes to process control a few years ago, Evelina Rickeviciute, board secretary of ISA Will-DuPage and national product manager for liquid analysis at Endress+Hauser, earned a PCIT degree at JCC in 2020-21, after graduating from the University of Illinois Chicago (UIC) in 2018 with a degree in biochemistry.
“I wasn’t planning on becoming a technician, but I needed a foundation of process control knowledge, concepts and lingo because I didn’t know what a flange or a ball valve was,” says Rickeviciute. “I already knew about analytics, which gave me an advantage on the process side, but I needed to backfill details and subjects that weren’t familiar.“
In fact, Rickeviciute had enough analytics know-how that she was invited to guest speak to PCIT’s analytics class, and even helped update its equipment. Its students had been using retired gas, chromatographs (GC), but more recently added pH sensors and handheld calibration devices.
“The analytics class still teaches theory, but half is now using handhelds to test samples, perform, calibrations, and troubleshoot problems,” adds Rickeviciute. “This is useful because the students can get more familiar with analyzers, and establish the process control foundation they need, so they won’t be overwhelmed when they get hired and are learning on the job.”
Connects early with high school students
In addition to teaching college students, Limon reports the PCIT program has been delivering its message during career days and other events at some high schools. However, it’s interactions don’t stop there because it’s also participating in a dual-credit Advanced Integration Maintenance (AIM) that releases high school students four mornings each week to get instruction at JJC in electrical, mechanical and instrumentation subjects. AIM started with 24 students, and added a section to include 36 this past spring—though interest was obviously high because 72 wanted to join.
“Our hardest task used to be getting out the message about what students could learn, and the career opportunities and salaries they could earn in the process industries,” adds Limon. “Now, local companies like ExxonMobil, Citgo, constellation and others want to get new employees from nearby community colleges and high schools, and their combined and increasing awareness about each other is causing a big jump in interest JJC’s and other programs. Process industry companies are realizing they have to invest in new people, and students are realizing these are good, bright and clean places to work, and they can graduate from a two-year program and start earning six figures.”
