Manufacturing Day links high school students to companies - WREX.com – Rockford’s News Leader

Manufacturing Day links high school students to companies

Dozens of students from area high schools will visit several companies to learn more about manufacturing and the career opportunities available in the field.

Manufacturing Day is a nationwide event, but locally, students Winnebago, Jefferson, Auburn, East, Guilford, and Roosevelt high schools took part. They visited open houses at the following companies:

• Seward Screw Products
• ANPEC Industries
• KI Machine
• Specialty Screw
• UTC Aerospace Systems
• Rockford Linear Actuation
• Professional Graphics
• Header Die & Tool
• RJ Link
• Ingersoll Machine Tools
• Superior Joining Technologies
• Energy Dynamics
• Danfoss
• Forest City Gear
• GE Aviation

Many of those companies are having difficulty finding employees with sufficient math and science skills for their field, so organizers hope the day will encourage students to pursue education in manufacturing.

"There's going to be a gap in the workforce as people retire, and it's important that everyone understands that manufacturing is a great place to work, it's really a great job; it has high technical skills, we need math and science," Superior Joining Technologies President Teresa Beach-Shelow says.