The Hub & Spoke Institute (HSI) provides hands-on experiential learning and an educational journey in which the community becomes the classroom.
Our unique partnership with local employers and The Maker Playground is creating better opportunities and helping kids and adults discover their passions and learn the skills needed to live a successful and purpose-driven life. HSI is committed to developing industry career awareness and developing talent through a variety of training programs.
Hub & Spoke Institute is the first-of-its-kind collaboration to provide students with the tools and skills they need to excel not only in the classroom but also in high-paying, in-demand jobs.
The initiative will allow students to receive hands-on STEAM-based (science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics) education.
Why Does Workforce Development Matter?
College is a great option for many, but not all. Dropout rates exceed 30%. How many people do you know who realize, after they’ve spent so much time and money on a degree, that they’re on the wrong pathway? Spending $20,000, $30,000 or more a year is just too much when you aren’t sure where your real interests lie. Children should not have to decide their future before they have discovered their passions.
Along with giving our children more freedom to explore potential passions, the trades have proven themselves as even more relevant, vital, and essential than ever. But the reality is that we do not have the people we need to fill critical roles. In the face of disappearing shop classes, a generations-old “Bachelor’s or Bust” mindset, and a de-emphasis and devaluation of the trades, it’s no wonder that 72% of Indiana contractors are struggling to find skilled employees. The labor shortage is nothing new, but HSI is taking a new approach to workforce development.
HSI puts the trades on the table as a viable option for a challenging, rewarding, and well-paying career. With partners like Hamilton Southeastern Schools (HSE), it also literally puts tools in the hands of people who may never have thought that this path was open, available, or right for them. From the smallest makers – who often have the biggest ideas! – to adults who want to explore new possibilities, this is a learning environment without boundaries.
We cannot solve the labor shortage by staying siloed; as with any ecosystem, we need to interact and work together in order to survive and thrive.
The solution to labor shortages is not a solution. Rather, it is a multitude of solutions from leaders in education (from primary to post-secondary), private industry, and the community. The HSI Entremaker program is a groundbreaking workforce development ecosystem that brings these stakeholders together to effect positive, sustainable change in our industry.
The key to a healthy ecosystem is interaction and cooperation between partners – as well as the desire to ensure the whole survives and thrives. This is what HSI strives to do; it is the mission and model on which it is built. Solving our major challenges and engaging people in the trades requires (1) access to space, tools, and teachers and (2) fuel to feed the fire and passion within folks. This is where the magic happens. This is where we make.
The Fishers Maker Playground offers tools and tinkering for you to create without limits.
Students attend and learn in Hub & Spoke’s project- and work-based learning and innovation hub, which is a playground of tools, technology, and arts.
The Maker Playground features several zones throughout the space for you to tinker and create, including a community workshop, metal shop, 3D printing space, welding, CNC routers, a laser cutter, and more.
Complementing this space are four classrooms with S.T.E.A.M.- experiential learning, and a large gathering and collaboration space.
HSE Teacher In Residence
Jennifer Suskovich is not only the kind of teacher you want guiding your children, she’s the kind of teacher you wish you had. With a keen love of her subject, an unquenchable thirst for knowledge, and the ability to interest preteens in science, technology, math, and engineering, Jennifer shows HSE youth that the world can be their classroom – and their playground.
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