Skip to main content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.

Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock ( ) or https:// means you’ve safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

Training the Next Generation for the Manufacturing Workforce

Guest blog post by Marta Collier of Arkansas Manufacturing Solutions (AMS), an affiliate of the Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP).

The lazy days of summer are a thing of the past. Through a remarkably diverse set of summer camps and other enrichment programs, kids all over Arkansas spent the summer of 2015 participating in activities designed to spark their curiosity and teach them the joy of creating. That joy—and the 21st century skills they learned—will hopefully stay with them and lead some into the rewarding, high-paying manufacturing jobs that require those skills.

Recognizing that “one size does NOT always fit all,” businesses, educators and government officials in Arkansas are teaming up to create a network of opportunities for students and job seekers that could serve as a model for others areas of the country facing the challenge of recruiting skilled labor in manufacturing.

  
In Central Arkansas, the Arkansas Regional Innovation Hub (North Little Rock) offered seven different multi-day, Maker Camps where students explored 3D printing and laser technologies and developed engineering skills such as computer programing, modeling, analytics, plant safety. The Hub is a sub-recipient of the Arkansas MEP, a program within the Arkansas Economic Development Commission. It features The Launch Pad, a Maker Space where students and employees in manufacturing companies can expand skill sets that promote growth and innovation in the work place.

Young Manufacturer’s Academies, the signature program of the Manufacturing Institute’s Dream It. Do It. program, took place at nine community colleges around the state through the support of the Gene Haas Foundation, Albermarle Corporation, the Arkansas Economic Development Commission, El Dorado Chemical, Entergy-Arkansas, Great Lakes Solutions, Lennox Corp., Lockheed Martin Corp., Martin Midstream Partners and the Arkansas State Chamber. More than 250 students from grades 7 to9 were able to grow and develop essential knowledge and skills related to manufacturing jobs in Arkansas. The week-long experience included hands-on training in reasoning, problem-solving and technology literacy skills as well as tours of manufacturing facilities.

In Northwest Arkansas, the University of Arkansas’s College of Engineering continued its tradition of offering Engineering Summer Academies, which expose students in the 4th grade and up to hands-on engineering activities. Research experiences for undergraduates are also a significant portion of summer activity for the University.

In the northeastern corner of the state, Arkansas State University in Jonesboro continued its delivery of outreach and research opportunities for K-12 and undergraduate students interested in biosciences and engineering experiences. The activities were facilitated through the Arkansas STEM Center network as well as through the ASU Office of Research and Technology Transfer.

In Central and Southern Arkansas a number of organizations and institutions also provided similar experiences including, but not limited to, University of Arkansas at Little Rock’s SUPER Program, Arkansas Children’s Hospital’s Camp Wanna Code, Experiential Summer Engineering/Science Camps offered by the Museum of Discovery (Little Rock) along with the Mid-America Science Museum (Hot Springs) and the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff’s STEM Academy.

In addition to giving kids lots of exciting activities while school is out, Arkansas is making great strides in preparing the types of workers manufacturing will need in the days to come. You too can make an impact by participating in Manufacturing Day on October 2, 2015, in your local community. Find an event near you by visiting http://www.mfgday.com/events.

Related posts

Comments

Manufacturing is the production of goods by hand or by industrial art. This is the production of BioDrugs for services in pharmacies, clinics, and hospitals The next generation shall be educated and trained on mathematics, chemistry, physics and biology. They shall do research in the chemistry, physics, and biology laboratories, and manufacture the goods in the PLANT. These young scientists.
Hi Diana thank you very much for your comment, it is important for my alertness. However, for "My Blog Site; and "It Looks fine but it has some overlapping"I don't exactly understand. Bottom-line, as soon as I know it'll improve my work. Training the next generation is imperative; mathematics, chemistry, physics and biology are a beginning of many sciences, and health science is included. They created the clinical sciences. MANUFACTURING: Medical botany, biopharmacognosy, and industrial chemistry, industrial biopharmacology, industrial microbiology are divisions that specialize with medical plants. Original industrial biotechnological research for discovery of new BioDrugs and manufacturing of the proprietary medicines at the INTERNATIONAL ETHNOMEDICAL RESEARCH. That's where Manufacturing Extension Partnerships comes in. Partnership is important. I need you to highlight me in that regard. It'll be the first time I acquire the global experience. Lastly I need you to highlight me on "OVERLAPPING" to know that it'll be the beginning of getting careful. I appreciate comment.
Hello, I think your website might be having browser compatibility issues. When I look at your blog site in Firefox, it looks fine but when opening in Internet Explorer, it has some overlapping. I just wanted to give you a quick heads up! Other then that, terrific blog!
Thank you Dianna for the heads up. I will check into it. Glad you enjoyed the blog otherwise.
That programs looks really great and promising. To get more skilled manufacturing workforce in the future, I believe that we need to starts early. Just like what that summer program do, the earlier we starts with them, there will be bigger chance it influences their education and career paths later. Especially by showing kids those cutting edge technologies.
I believe that this will bring good impact to the manufacturing industry later in the future. By preparing those kids, showing what they can do with current technology can influence their career path.

Add new comment

CAPTCHA
Image CAPTCHA
Enter the characters shown in the image.
This question is for testing whether or not you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.
Please be respectful when posting comments. We will post all comments without editing as long as they are appropriate for a public, family friendly website, are on topic and do not contain profanity, personal attacks, misleading or false information/accusations or promote specific commercial products, services or organizations. Comments that violate our comment policy or include links to non-government organizations/web pages will not be posted.