From scholarship
to career engineer

Precision manufacturer Accumold’s partnership with DMACC helps mold success 

By Joe Gardyasz
Senior Staff Writer | Business Record

When Jerry Miner began taking tool-and-die classes at Des Moines Area Community College more than a decade ago, he had the advantage of gaining real-world work experience just down the road at Ankeny-based Accumold. 

Through the Accumold Scholar program — which had already been underway for several years — Miner took classes in the mornings at DMACC and then worked alongside experienced tool makers and production personnel each afternoon. The company paid his tuition and provided the opportunity to get work experience as a student and potentially be hired on at graduation. 

Miner credits “a very good shop program and shop teacher” during high school with spurring him to look into manufacturing-related programs at DMACC, where he learned about the scholarship program. Accumold’s willingness to allow him to move into new areas and continue to gain new skills has also been a key to success. 

When he completed the tool and die program, he was offered a full-time position with the manufacturer, which specializes in producing precision molded micro-parts for the electronics industry. 

Miner has now been with the company for more than nine years, and during that time he again enrolled with DMACC while continuing to work full time, taking advantage of another Accumold scholarship to complete a program in computer-aided design. About three years ago he was promoted to project engineer, and he now leads key projects for the company. 

“So it’s been quite the journey, and Accumold’s been great,” he said. “They’ve allowed me to move and expand and grow into new roles and fields in the company — it’s been a great opportunity.” 

Miner started out on Accumold’s production floor working with the high-tech molding machines, and subsequently worked in a number of different positions around the company. Among his various roles, he has worked in the tool room and maintenance areas, learning how to repair existing molds and build new molds, along with picking up skills such as computer numerical control programming and then learning computer-aided design. 

In his current role as one of six project engineers at Accumold, he works with the company’s customers as they bring in new needs for micro-molded plastic parts, managing each of the departments in designing and building the mold for that part. He’s largely the face of the company to the client as his team determines how they’re going to make the product work. And for younger workers, he often serves as the mentor that he had along every step of this career path. 

In each role he’s had, “there’s always been one person that helped train me and mentor me,” Miner said. “The employees here at Accumold are very helpful, very knowledgeable, and that actually helps the DMACC Scholars program thrive.”