Manufacturing Day Tours and Expo
Launch the media gallery 1 playerCareerTEC hosted its annual Manufacturing Day on Friday, Oct. 31. Due to parent-teacher conferences, Pearl City was the only member school to not participate. In total, 102 students participated (down 21 from last year) from six local high schools. Tours provided were as follows: Dakota (16 students): Honeywell; Durand (20): Adkins Energy; Freeport (24): Zurn Elkay and Modern Plating; Orangeville (13): Seaga Manufacturing; Pecatonica (12): Danfoss; and Lena-Winslow (17): Tri Star Metals.
Students and chaperones traveled from their one-hour tours to Highland Community College to visit our Industrial Tech classrooms and learn more from our Expo booth representatives from Adkins Energy, Berner Food and Beverage, The Caldwell Group, Colony Brands, Core FX Ingredients, Danfoss Power Solutions, FRG/Star Freeport Company, Furst Staffing, Highland Community College, Honeywell, Plumbers & Pipefitters Local 23, Savencia Fromage & Dairy/Kolb-Lena, Titan International, Zurn Elkay, and CareerTEC. Surprisingly, two manufacturers – Anchor Harvey and Nuestro Queso, were scheduled to have a booth but did not show up. Don Barnard, Plant Manager at Savencia/Kolb-Lena, was the closing speaker and discussed, among other things, the role of technology in today’s manufacturing plant. Before departing, $200 worth of gift cards and other Honeywell, Colony Brands, Titan Tire and Adkins Energy prizes and merchandise were handed out. Sylvia Oppold, co-owner of Brew and Chew in Pearl City and HR manager at Titan Tire in Freeport, provided free Brew and Chew homemade milkshake coupons for all students and chaperones in attendance.
Manufacturers who provided monetary donations to sponsor our event included Tri Star Metals ($1,000), Danfoss ($500), Titan International ($500), Adkins Energy ($250), and Colony Brands ($100). These donations helped pay for student T-shirts, the gift cards, and other miscellaneous expenses. The CTEI grant will pay for the cost to rent the room, presenter lunches, transportation costs, and substitute teacher costs.
In our post-event surveys, 33 of 39 students who took the survey and four chaperones agreed or strongly agreed thought the activities/tours were interesting and engaging. Also, 26 of the 39 students agreed or strongly agreed that they are “more motivated to pursue a career in manufacturing” because of our event. A total of seven manufacturers responded to the booth survey and all said they would be willing to participate again in the future. Our Manufacturing Day committee will meet in the next month to review the survey results and discuss ways to improve next year.