Home » Regional students to celebrate National Manufacturing Day with tours

Regional students to celebrate National Manufacturing Day with tours

NEW ALBANY, Ind. (Oct. 17, 2016) — More than 900 students from the region will be visiting 26 facilities from Oct. 24-28 in celebration of National Manufacturing Day.

National Manufacturing Day was created in response to a dire need in America manufacturing – a major shortage of skilled workers. An estimated two million manufacturing jobs will go unfilled nationwide over the next decade due to companies’ inability to find talent with the required skills.

Several leading industry organizations determined five years ago the best way to combat this malady and reverse negative perceptions people may have about manufacturing jobs and careers is to literally show “up close and personal” the exciting kind of work that takes place in plants across the U.S.

National studies are showing positive effects with regards to manufacturing day activities. Eighty-one percent of the students who participated in last year’s event nationally said they were more convinced manufacturing provided careers that were interesting and rewarding and 62 percent were more motivated to pursue a career in manufacturing. That is good news for manufacturers who are looking for employees. According to a survey done by the Manpower Group in 2015, 38 percent of 41,700 companies surveyed report a labor shortage and 42 percent reported difficulty finding talent. In addition, retirement of aged workers is outpacing the employers’ ability to replace them.

Regionally, National Manufacturing Day events and participation has exploded. In 2014, the first year of scheduled activities, eight companies offered tours to approximately 100 students. Last year, the number of manufacturers providing tours jumped to 13 and the number of students participating quadrupled to 542.

Tours currently scheduled for students during the 2016 event are:

· Amatrol, Inc.
· American Commercial Barge Lines, Jeff Boat
· American Fuji Seal, Inc.
· American Plastic Molding
· Beach Mold & Tool, Inc.
· Bruce Fox Inc.
· Chester Pool Systems
· Cimtech, Inc.
· Clarcor Air Filtration Products
· Cylicron, LLC
· Diverse Woodworking, LLC
· Ford Motor Company – Louisville Assembly Plant
· Freudenberg Medical MIS, Inc.
· Jones Machine & Tool, Inc.
· Key Electronics
· Koetter Woodworking, Inc.
· L & D Mail Masters, Inc.
· Metals USA (Port Road)
· Metals USA (Loop Road)
· Midwest-TEK
· Morgan Foods
· Owings Patterns INC
· Perkins Technology Center, Ivy Tech Jeffersonville Campus
· Revere Plastics Systems, LLC
· S&J Precision Inc.
· VOSS Clark

Schools who will be bringing students to tour manufacturing facilities include:

Grace Christian Academy, Scottsburg
Greater Clark County Schools
Ivy Tech Community College of Indiana
New Albany Floyd County Consolidated School Corporation
Our Lady of Providence Jr – Sr High School
Prosser Career Education Center
Scott County School District 1
Scott County School District 2
South Harrison Community School Corporation
West Clark Community Schools

To see all the National Manufacturing Day events taking place in Indiana, click here.