As a break in tradition, Kathy Weber, director of Continuing Education and Business & Industry Center (B&I) at Miami University Hamilton, was recently honored with the Supplier of the Year Award by Wayne Ferguson, the owner of Ferguson Metals.
The B&I Center focuses on training for the workforce. According to Weber, the center works with companies, organizations and sometimes individuals to try and keep their skills current and enhance the training they already have. Many participants have been students at Miami at one time.
Every year Ferguson Metals honors a supplier. Usually it is someone who supplies metal or other raw materials or services to them. This year, however, they broke with tradition and chose to honor Weber.
"They wanted to thank me for all the years of service that I had provided to their organization and all the training I had brought to their company for their employees," Weber said.
Ferguson Metals is a client company of Weber's and the Hamilton B&I Center. Weber has worked with this company since 1999 and plays an integral part in the development of their employees.
"I meet with the human resource directors and several people in their human resource department to talk about and plan the training directions for the employees at Ferguson Metals, and I've been doing that a number of years," Weber said.
Among the programs that the B&I Center provides are supervisory training, manufacturing training, customer service training and diversity training.
The center functions within the Office of Continuing Education. Miami has three different Offices of Continuing Education, one on each campus. B&I centers are located on the Hamilton and Middletown regional campuses.
Cheryl Young is the director for the Oxford Office of Continuing Education and said that Weber's award shows the importance of continued education.
"Continuing Education at each of our campuses is a little different; it reflects the complexion and the nature of the campus," Young said. "But still, (the award) is an honor and a way of recognizing and bringing what continuing education does to the attention of everybody - not only at (Hamilton)."
According to Jim Huggard, the director of human resources at Ferguson Metals, Weber's recent honor is well-deserved recognition because Weber has helped develop the company's organizational training program.
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Two years ago Weber was asked to develop and chair a scholarship program for the children, grandchildren and spouses of Ferguson Metal employees.
Huggard said the program was a success and that Weber did an extraordinary job in its development.
For Weber, the recent honor and award shows the importance of companies and organizations investing in their people and upgrading the skills of their workforce.
"It (the award) is pretty much validating the service and the quality of the training program that we've brought to Ferguson Metals over a six or seven year period of time," Weber said.
Young also sees Miami's partnership as valuable.
"This university is so rich with knowledge and resources," Young said. "Continuing education is a way of taking that out to a larger community."
Representing Ferguson Metals, Huggard said they value their partnership with Weber and her excellent staff of individuals.
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