FAME program connects students with local employers, paid work experience and a pathway to in-demand careers
For Zoey Wainwright, there’s something satisfying about figuring out how things work—and
even more satisfying about fixing them when they don’t.
That interest started young. She liked building things, then learning how to repair them. She worked on her own car. A welding apprenticeship with John Deere gave her a taste of manufacturing. And somewhere along the way, maintenance caught her attention.
“Just maintaining things, fixing things up, just making a factory work,” Wainwright said. “It’s so interesting.”
Now, just months after graduating from high school, she’s getting the chance to do exactly that.
Wainwright is part of Eastern Iowa Community Colleges’ (EICC) inaugural FAME cohort, which kicked off the semester with a signing ceremony at the Blong Technology Center. Much like student-athletes signing with a college, FAME students put pen to paper and officially committed to the companies where they’ll work throughout the two-year program.
It marked the beginning of a different kind of college experience.
Students spend two days a week in class at EICC and three days working for their sponsoring employer. They earn a paycheck, gain hands-on experience and put what they’re learning into practice almost immediately.
For Wainwright, that employer is Amcor in Bettendorf. She had only been there a short time when she got her first look at maintenance technicians responding to a down machine.
“It’s so insanely cool,” she said. “Watching people work on a down machine and get it back up in a matter of a few minutes—it’s so cool.”
Learning by doing
That connection between the classroom and the manufacturing floor is what drew Wainwright to FAME. She plans to continue her education in engineering.
“I’m really excited to get a degree,” she said. “This is going to be a great step for me. I am basically a step ahead.”
Fellow FAME student Allen Beard found his way to the program through EICC.
A 2024 high school graduate, Beard came to the college to study engineering technology. While taking classes at the Blong Technology Center, EICC staff encouraged him to consider FAME.
He eventually matched with West Liberty Foods, a company that stood out to him after a plant tour.
“They really had a sense of community there,” Beard said.
For him, FAME offers room to grow in more ways than one. Because some of his previous coursework overlaps with the program, Beard expects to finish with two associate degrees and additional certificates.
He’s also thinking about the example he can set along the way.
“I’ve always wanted to continue doing education,” he said. “I think I’m making an example for my little brother.”
His family, he said, wants to see him succeed and grow. FAME gives him a clear path to do both.
Answering a workforce need
For the companies involved, that path leads directly into one of the region’s greatest workforce needs.
“There is definitely a deficit of skilled labor in the industrial skilled trades,” West Liberty Foods Plant Engineer Eric Runge said. “We are no stranger to that.”
What caught Runge’s attention about FAME was its structure. Students aren’t spending two years learning the theory and then stepping into a plant for the first time. They’re doing both at once.
“They get to work on site in their actual trade while being educated,” Runge said. “As they’re learning, working, learning, working, they’re getting to apply these principles.”
Amcor Human Resource Manager Kim Jaber has been involved with the Quad Cities FAME effort since its early stages. For her, the signing ceremony was the payoff after nearly two years of work to bring employers, workforce partners and EICC together.
“To grow our team and to be able to bring this program not only to our plant, but to the Quad Cities as a whole, really has put two years’ worth of hard work into action,” Jaber said.
The need, and the interest, are already clear.
Jaber said the first recruitment cycle drew about 40 applicants. She also pointed to regional workforce data showing more than 1,200 opportunities for advanced manufacturing technicians in the next two to five years.
That means this first group is doing more than starting college. They’re stepping directly into careers where their skills are needed.
And for Wainwright, it feels like the right place to start.
“I’m so excited to continue on this path,” she said.
About FAME
Riverbend FAME is Iowa’s first chapter of the Federation for Advanced Manufacturing Education and is built in partnership with regional manufacturers to meet the growing demand for skilled technicians.