Getting the Youth Excited about Manufacturing

If you are in the manufacturing industry you have probably heard at length about the skills gap that has or is quickly approaching us. We are not going to have enough skilled workers to replace the existing ones when they retire. We, at J/E, recognize that as a manufacturing and machining company we have to play a part in getting the youth excited about working in the plant again. Here are some of the things we are doing to try to close the gap:

Student Tours

What better way to show our youth what a modern machine shop looks like then giving them a tour! We are teaming up with EMC Oxford to offer local high school students a chance to walk through our plant and discover what it is like working at a machine shop.

Promotional Video

A few months ago we teamed up with In-House Solutions to create a promotional video that will be shown throughout high schools in Canada. The video highlights technology and innovation in manufacturing, what a job shop looks like today and the future of machining.

Old Machinery and Resources

After attending a machining shop class at a local high school we noticed the school could use more equipment and resources. That is when we decided we are going to donate some of our excess material, tools and machines to further assist the students. Visiting the school was an awesome opportunity to see how students were getting taught machining and figure out how we could get involved.

College Talks

Over the past year we have worked with several classes at Fanshawe College. What we do is provide the students with information about our company that they can do a course project on. Teaming up with these classes does three things:

• Gives the students hands on experience of working with a live business
• Gives us, the business, fresh ideas of how to operate our company
• Exposes students to an industry they might not of thought of working in

We plan on continuing to work with Fanshawe professors in the future and build on our relationship.

What are you doing to get the youth excited about manufacturing?