Join host Karin Norington-Reaves, CEO of the Chicago Cook Workforce Partnership, for part one of a two-part conversation about all things manufacturing as we celebrate Manufacturing Month. Joining her are experts in the field, each with their own unique journey in the industry: a daughter of immigrants who left a job at a prestigious law firm to follow in her father’s footsteps when the business needed to create a much-needed talent pipeline.

Job hunting during a pandemic can be challenging, but Jon Cox recently got two promising leads during a job fair in Skokie.

Diana Peters, Executive Director at Symbol Training Institute was named one of the talented emerging leaders under 40 for 2018! Young professionals are a vital asset to the precision machined parts industry, and it is important to acknowledge those who are making strides toward shaping the industry’s future. is recognizing our industry’s young talent who were nominated by their peers through our new Emerging Leaders program.(scroll to picture #14 for Diana Peters)

Tom Peters, Director of Workforce Development at Symbol Training Institute, was proud to participate in the Emerging Leaders training program sponsored by the Small Business Administration (SBA). This is the 10th year that the SBA Illinois District Office has hosted the executive education series. The program helps to connect small business owners with a network of industry peers and experts, then fosters the creation of a three year strategic growth action plan.

Breaking Perceptions. Building Possibilities Dedicated individuals across Illinois are working each day to improve lives, create stronger communities, and disrupt the idea of aging. As champions of leadership, they truly represent that aging is about growth, creating new opportunities, and being there for the neighbors in their communities. Leveraging 40 years of experience in the manufacturing industry, Alex Kogan founded Symbol Training Institute to provide the specialize

Diana, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today? Symbol Training Institute evolved out of Symbol Tool, a tool and die shop that was founded over three decades ago. I serve as the Executive Director/Founder of Symbol Training Institute, a post secondary career and technical hands-on advanced manufacturing training facility in the Chicagoland area. I lead Symbol’s initiative to combat the skilled labor shortage by providing superior hands-on training and job

Tammy Duckworth congratulates Diana Peters, Executive Director at Symbol Training Institute on her STEP Ahead Award received in Washington DC in April 21, 2017

At DyMynd we focus on a woman’s relationship with money to break down the barrier for financial empowerment. Money has culturally been a taboo subject and we have found that women are told not to talk about it in public. This leads women to feel uncomfortable about their finances and uneasy to share their stories and experiences. This year it is important that we breakdown these barriers so that we can all rise and stand together.

Symbol Training Institute is an advanced manufacturing school that was created to help companies improve their current workforce, or help educate and train beginners in manufacturing. Diana Peters, owner and executive director, shares the story of how the company has evolved from just a tool and die shop to the largest manufacturing training school in the Chicago area. Peters shares that she focuses on the quality of the service, as well as the customers

Symbol Training Institute, Diana leads its initiative to combat the skilled-labor As the executive director and founder of Symbol Training shortage by providing hands-on training (including NIMS credentialing) and job placement, and strongly advocates for women’s equality in manufacturing by promoting the profession to women and employing several female instructors to assist in her efforts. In addition, Diana sits on U.S. Congresswoman Tammy Duckworth’s National Manufacturing Advisory Council

Entrepreneur Diana Peters believes that success in business requires a delicate balance of embracing risk and preparing for it. “Jumping into the water without knowing how to swim and no flotation device is not a wise decision,” she said. “You need to plan how you’re going to get to the other side.”

A recent trip to Germany hammered home for Thomas Peters, a workforce development executive, just how differently that country handles training for the next generation of factory workers. Peters helps run in Skokie, which teaches computer numerical control machining to students. (His wife ) Earlier this month he joined a 15-person delegation to the European nation that comprised manufacturers, academics and economic development professionals all tied to metalworking.

Symbol Training Institutes prepares students for REAL manufacturing jobs. Symbol holds a job fair with hundreds of unemployed individuals and a room filled with manufacturing companies willing to hire on the spot!

Colibri Spindles, ‘The Metalworking Innovators,’ recently featured Symbol’s Executive Director, Diana Peters, in ‘Breaking The Steel Ceiling: Women Prove Themselves in the CNC Manufacturing World.’ Symbol is thrilled to be doing our part to lessen the gender gap in the manufacturing field, however the numbers speak for themselves

Symbol is once again the #1 ranked National Institute of Metalworking Skills ( NIMS ) credentialing provider with 26% of all NIMS credentials in Illinois being earned by Symbol’s students. We are also proud to be a top producer of NIMS credentials in the nation for the second year in a row. We continue to provide qualified and credentialed graduates to our manufacturing workforce

“(Manufacturers) want to try before they buy,” said Tommy Peters, director of business operations at Symbol Training Institute, a school based in Skokie that trains machinists and quality control technicians. Outsourcing to staffing agencies hides declines in manufacturing pay because staffing workers’ wages are not counted as part of the industry, according to a report released Friday by the National Employment Law Project, a worker advocacy group.

Growing up, Diana Peters hung out with her dad, Alex Kogan, at his Skokie tool and die shop, Symbol Tool Inc. When they saw a growing shortage of skilled workers to operate advanced systems to run the machines that produce parts, they founded Symbol Training Institute, a for-profit vocational school. Opened in 2005 in the original shop, Symbol teaches workers on computer numerical control (CNC) machines and has expanded in new locations in Skokie and Addison.

We definitely encourage manufacturing companies to open their doors up and have younger kids u high school, even junior high children u come in and tour the facility. They’ll see it’s not their great-grandfather’s shop. It’s not dark, dirty and dingy anymore.

Tom and Tony from Tastytrade Network talk with Diana Peters of Symbol Training Institution on their LIVE show, Bootstrapping in America. Diana Peters is the Director of Symbol Training Institute. She leads Symbol’s initiative to combat the skilled labor shortage by providing superior hands-on training and job placement through the institution

“Meet Chicago’s next generation of leaders, which include Symbol Training Institute’s Executive Director, Diana Peters. Since Crain’s launched its annual 40 Under 40 feature in 1989, nearly 1,000 up-and-coming Chicagoans have earned the title. Barack Obama, Oprah Winfrey, Rahm Emanuel, Billy Corgan, Lisa Madigan, Nate Silver, Grant Achatz, Alpana Singh and Mary Zimmerman have shared the glory.

Diana Peters, executive director of Symbol Training Institute, talks about getting young people to realize that manufacturing is a “great career.”

“April Senase is at the front end of a potential job boom: women in manufacturing. Senase, 35, is a trailblazer. She has worked numerous factory jobs for 13 years — often as the first, or only, woman on the production floor. She makes nearly $40 an hour, with overtime, in her day job running high-tech machinery at a factory that makes specialized industrial parts.

Symbol was featured in Modern Machine Shop Magazine. Symbol Job Training is part of this year?s IMTS Student Skills Center. Lead by executive director Diana Peters, the for-profit CNC training institute started out in the ’80s as a tool and die operation. But in 2006, it reinvented itself as a training provider, turning its CNC production equipment into instruments for hands-on training.

Many workers—from newbies to experienced machinists—can benefit from CNC training.

“Symbol was featured on NPR WBEZ’s (91.5 FM) Changing Gears Segment Symbol Job Training is a for-profit school in Skokie, just north of Chicago. The school focuses on training machinists in CNC u those machines are the standard on factory floors these days.”

Symbol Job Training is a for-profit vocational school north of Chicago. It mostly teaches students what’s known as computerized numerical control — CNC. It runs most machines on today’s factory floors. In this class, students learn CNC programming.