PITTSBURG, Kans. — As hundreds of students start a new school year at Pittsburg State University, the school is starting something new as well.

“We want to make sure these students come out ready to go, whether they’re going to come and take jobs in Pittsburg in this community right here or in other communities right there,” said Stacy Butcher, CDL Business Development & National Sales Acct Manager.

The new workforce initiative at Pittsburg State University is hoping to do just that. The school has partnered with local Miller’s Professional Imaging to get students workforce experience.

“Starting this semester, kind of our pilot program, we’re hoping to get 20-30 students. Different majors, backgrounds, degrees, we’ll bring them in, they’ll work full-time hours after they finish with school or the semester and gain some on-the-job experience,” said Daniel Rank, Miller’s Professional Imaging HR Director.

Not too far down the road, CDL Electric is creating new positions in a variety of different fields.

“We’re going to pick 10 students, we’re going to put them in five different divisions, our electrical, our sign, our marketing, our HR, and our engineering,” said Butcher.

Pitt State and the companies have worked to create a financially viable experience as well. On top of making money on the job, students can potentially use the internship to fund their education.

“If these students meet this certain criteria, we’re going to reward them with a scholarship. In this day and age, the cost of living and everything is going up, we want to make sure that when these students come in they are able to earn a little bit and have this thing pay for their school,” added Butcher.

While helping the companies find potential candidates to fill the positions they have available.

“After Thanksgiving until Christmas, we’ll hit our peak volume and it gets pretty busy,” said Rank.

“So we’re going to bring these kids in, we’re going to train them the way we do it here at CDL, and hopefully with these guys after they graduate step into CDL as full time,” added Butcher.