GMI in WWII - Training for Today and for New Horizons Tomorrow
General Motors Institute (GMI) in World War Two
Flint, MI
1919-1982
Now Kettering University

This page added 11-16-2017.
 

General Motors Institute started as a night school for local GM employees in a unused plant in Flint in 1919.  In 1920 classes were added for the training of foreman which evolved into the General Motors Management Training Program that by World War II had trained 20,000 foreman and managers for all GM Divisions in the US and Canada.  In 1927 the present campus of the General Motors Institute of Technology was built to replace the old factory.  The name was changed to General Motors Institute in the early 1930s.

During World War Two GMI was called on by the US military to train sailors and soldiers in the maintenance and operation of GM products being used by the Army, Navy, Marines and Coast Guard.  This included designing training courses, providing training for military instructors, and providing on site training at GMI for both officers and enlisted men on General Motors products.

GMI is most well known for the creation of its Engineering Cooperative Program where each GM division sponsored students at the school.  It took the student five years to graduate, with alternating terms at GMI and the sponsoring divisions.  B.S. degrees could be earned in electrical, industrial, and mechanical engineering with an industrial management degree being added later. 

In 1982 GM sold off the school which is currently known as Kettering University.  It carries on the tradition of a cooperative school, but now has students from many companies, not just GM that learn their college education there.

Learn more at:
GMI in WWII - Training for Today and for New Horizons Tomorrow