More than 600 high school students from Shelby County Schools took part in National Manufacturing Day on Oct. 7 by visiting and touring 12 local companies. The students learned more about potential careers in the manufacturing industry and the educational opportunities needed to qualify for the jobs.
Partners on the workforce development initiative include
The Workforce Investment Network (WIN),
Greater Memphis Alliance for a Competitive Workforce (GMACW), BDO, Shelby County Schools, Durham School Services, and the Greater Memphis Chamber.
“National Manufacturing Day has grown each year in Memphis, starting from 200 students in 2014 and growing to 600 students this year,” said Phil Trenary, President and CEO of the Greater Memphis Chamber, in a statement. “It is vital that we showcase to our future workforce the good-paying jobs and career paths these manufacturing companies provide to their employees.”
Schools participating this year included Booker T. Washington High School, Douglass High School, East High School, Hamilton High School, Kingsbury Career Technology Center, Kirby High School, Melrose High School, Mitchell High School, Sheffield High School, Southwest Career Technology Center, Trezevant Career Technology Center and Whitehaven High School.
Each school toured a different manufacturing company, including Steel Warehouse, Gibson Guitar, Flextronics, Barnhart Crane, Competition Cams, Jordan Aluminum, Mitsubishi Electric Power Products, Medtronic, National Guards Products, SFI of Tennessee, Coca-Cola and Smith & Nephew.
“Smith & Nephew is honored to participate in this year’s Manufacturing Day and we are pleased to show the students of Shelby County how fascinating this field can be,” said the company’s VP of Operations Gene Baker. “Inspiring the next generation of manufacturing professionals is especially important to us at Smith & Nephew, as one day it will be these young people who continue our mission to support healthcare professionals in their daily efforts to improve the lives of their patients.”
The Workforce Investment Network provided the buses for the tours this year.
An estimated 3.5 million U.S. manufacturing jobs will be needed over the next decade, and it’s believed that roughly 2 million of those jobs will go unfilled due to manufacturers’ inability to find talent with the required skills. Since 2010, Tennessee has gained more than 45,400 net new manufacturing jobs, the largest increase in the U.S.
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