From classroom to career: How area businesses are raising job awareness

MANSFIELD — Jay Miller was hopeful that being a “fun and engaging workplace” was an adequate employee retainment strategy.

“People can bring their dogs in, we have flexible hours, snacks in the breakroom — all that,” the DRM Productions CEO said. “A few years ago, though, we started to see some turnover.”

Miller said some of his employees didn’t see a “clear pathway” for where they could be in the company in five or 10 years.

“We sort of had a ‘Choose Your Own Adventure’ book with blank pages,” he said. “We have opportunities for upward mobility, but I didn’t give them jumping off points and (we) got complacent.”

Miller said one of the missions of the digital media company is to “help other businesses scream louder.” Projects like “Richland Works” have helped businesses market themselves to students and potential hires in Richland County.

How do businesses engage with students?

“One of the things we talk about as business owners is not just getting career opportunities in front of youth, but how to engage them,” he said. “Because that’s often the bigger hurdle.”

“Kids aren’t going to come to us. I give out hundreds of business cards at the career fairs and events we go to. 

“The vast majority of the students, I never see again. I know high schoolers probably don’t like talking on the phone, or maybe they’re nervous thinking ‘I won’t get an internship anyway.’”

A Source Media Properties survey of more than 1,100 high school students found 38% of teens reported job shadowing, internships or part-time jobs as “very or highly influential” in their future career aspirations.

One-fourth of those students cited career days or job site visits as very or extremely influential. This can pose a challenge for employers though, even if a student finds something they’re passionate about.

“We’re not allowed to collect students’ contact information, so some type of middleman like an app would be super helpful,” he said.

Miller said he’s thought about creating software to communicate with students through school or guidance counselors. 

The Ontario High School alumnus said most of DRM’s staff members started as interns. The company now has about 15 employees.

Miller said his business has had success with unconventional job fairs.

“We’ve gone to college art shows to find designers,” he said. “I can’t really just post on Indeed and hope the right person finds it and applies. Hiring is kind of like sales, you have to have a targeted audience and go to them.”

‘You never know when curiosity will strike them’

The Gorman-Rupp Company employs more than 500 people at its Mansfield and Bellville locations.

Mansfield group president D.J. Daniels said the company works closely with many area schools. In fact, he said it’s common for the pump company to make job offers to its apprentices.

Gorman-Rupp also participates in multiple education programs for students including Manufacturing Days,  JA Inspire to Hire, Pioneer’s Career Exploration Day and LeaderRichland, which is a program for local middle schoolers.

“We’ve also had even younger students come out, especially during summer camps,” Daniels said. “When they (are) too young, our ability to take them out on the shop floor is limited.

“I think around middle school is the age where kids should start talking about career options with their parents, but you never know when curiosity will strike them.”

Daniels said he ultimately thinks parents and family members have a large influence on which career their children choose.

The Source Media Properties high school student survey found family members rank as the second most influential factor in a student’s career goals. The top factor is a student’s own research.

How influential are family members?

Daniels said some parents or older generations who haven’t seen a manufacturing plant recently could have an outdated idea of job opportunities.

“A lot of people don’t realize how advanced we are — they think of a dirty shop floor,” the group president said. “And let’s face it, there were large manufacturers who set up shop here and left. 

“I think there’s still a stigma that it could be an unstable job, but we don’t plan on going anywhere.”

Other businesses note that appealing to students at a young age can be beneficial for employee retainment.

Lt. Gov. Jon Husted discussed this idea with a panel of manufacturing leaders while visiting Goyal Industries in May.

“Particularly for rural communities that may see a lot of their young people leave, if you get them educated there and you connect them to a job before they graduate, they stay,” he said.

Andy Fox, workforce coordinator at Kokosing Construction, said the Fredericktown-based company retains many of its high school interns as full-time employees.

“You can start working here at age 18,” he said. “If you work out well — you like us and we like you — you will have the opportunity to return.

“You can advance quickly here if you show up every day and bring a good attitude. We have plenty of people in their mid-20s who are earning great wages.”

Fox said Kokosing usually has around 30 interns in various positions each summer, making up a significant percentage of the 225 Fredericktown employees. 

Kokosing also offers cooperative training programs to college students studying civil engineering, construction management and other related fields. The interns are paid and have specific responsibilities depending on which job site and services they work in.

“During the summer months we try to give these young kids opportunities who are interested in construction careers,” Fox said.

“Not everyone has to go to college to be successful, and I think there needs to be more awareness among teachers and administrators of that.”

Hiring is kind of like sales, you have to have a targeted audience and go to them.”

Jay Miller, owner and CEO of DRM Productions

High-paying jobs in our backyard

There are initiatives at the local and state level to improve teachers’ job awareness to take back to their classrooms.

Ashland, Richland and Wayne counties have recently hosted “teacher bootcamps” offering educators continuing education credits for touring local businesses.

Ohio’s 2025-2026 biennial budget also includes a provision that mandates a four-hour training about construction and building trades career pathways for guidance counselors who work with students in grades 7-12.

The Ohio Department of Education and Workforce is creating the training program with the Affiliated Construction Trades of Ohio. Counselors with licenses expiring after June 2026 must take the training to renew their license. 

Jacob Grove, the director of CTE for Madison Comprehensive High School, said local employers are eager to visit the school’s labs and talk with students. 

“Kids don’t understand. They think, ‘I want a big paying job; I have to go to a big city,’” Grove said. “That’s not the case. There are local people and places in the industry that need our kids.”

What employers need

Source Media Properties collected survey responses from 94 area employers in Richland, Ashland and surrounding counties. About 54% of the responses came from employers based in Richland County, 25% from Ashland County, 4% in multiple counties and 17% from other counties in north central Ohio.

Manufacturing made up the largest fraction of responses, with about 20 percent. Twelve percent of responses were from health care employers, 8.5% from education and the remaining from other industries.

Of 94 total responses, more than half stated communication, critical thinking, people skills and professionalism were hard to find.

How important are soft skills?

The importance of soft skills to most of Mansfield’s businesses wasn’t surprising to New York-based urban revitalization strategist and author Majora Carter.

Carter visited Mansfield as the inaugural speaker of Kaleidoscope Community Conversations in January 2024.

She founded a “green-collar” job training and placement program in her hometown of the South Bronx in 2003. Within the first three years, the nonprofit had an 85% career placement rate.

“A lot of the people coming to us didn’t know the first thing about brownfield remediation or water management,” she said. “We taught them those hard skills, but it was the soft skills that allowed employers to see the value of what these folks could do.

“We asked them what they were looking for, and all they really wanted was people who understood the value of being part of a team and could be a team player.”

Carter later founded StartUp Box, a social enterprise connecting South Bronx community members with tech company founders and CEOs.

“The job training program did quite well because in six or eight weeks you could get this base-level knowledge,” she said. 

“Tech is severely white-male-laden nationally. Mostly, white guys would talk to other white guys and that’s who they hired. Creating this type of infrastructure that literally networked folks who were doing these jobs with people who owned these businesses helped in a lot of ways.

“Unfortunately, we weren’t able to scale up that program, but it helped us move in the right direction. Recognizing that there is great value in our communities and that the people are the assets is number one. Then, you have to invest in that asset so it grows and actually supports other folks.”