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This story appeared in the Fall 2021 ������ Magazine



When Patrick Osborne ’94, MAT ’08 finished high school, the economy in his native Ireland was grim and the unemployment rate was in double digits. So he packed his bags and boarded a plane to the United States, where he leveraged his training as a tool and die maker to get an apprenticeship at the Tooling & Manufacturing Association in Schaumburg.



More than 25 years later, he’s been named the president of the association, now known as the Technology & Manufacturing Association (TMA).



Along the way, he worked at a variety of other jobs and earned two degrees from ������, where he fell in love with learning. Nine years ago, he rejoined TMA to put that passion to work. As director of education for TMA, he developed training and apprenticeship programs before gradually working his way up to the presidency.



“As a young adult, I realized that the more knowledge I can get, the more powerful I can be,” Osborne said. “It’s very rewarding to engage our people in theoretical instruction alongside their hands-on work. Once you set the hook, they become lifelong learners.”