Manufacturing Day may look different this year because of the COVID-19 Pandemic, but Julia Asoni, senior director of Youth Engagement, Manufacturing Institute, says the challenges may present a unique opportunity to highlight the manufacturing industry.
Manufacturers need to hire candidates to fill more than 4 million jobs over the next couple of years as baby boomers retire. However, manufacturers will struggle to fill just 2.4 million positions because of the shrinking talent pool. This will put the industry at risk of losing out on more than $400 billion in revenue, said Asoni during a Manufacturing Institute Webinar on June 18.
So how do manufacturers get the next-gen workforce into manufacturing so that they can fill the other 2 million jobs that will be vacant? The greatest way to engage youth is through personal experience, Asoni says, which is why Manufacturing Day (MFG Day)—or for some states, Manufacturing Month—is so critical to the industry. More than 72% of MFG Day attendees believe that manufacturing provides an interesting and rewarding career after they have toured facilities and learned more about opportunities in the field.
In Nebraska, MFG Day is known as Manufacturing Month—as it lasts throughout all of October. Juli Thelen, who handles public relations at Nebraska-based Behlen Mfg. Co., hosted eight high schools last year with 13 other Nebraska-area manufacturers, which got more than 350 students involved.
“We try to give the students hands on experience so they can see what goes on and how we make what we make,” Thelen says. “We also created an app for smartphones that engaged students during the tours with challenges and trivia games, which was so successful.”
Creators Wanted
CreatorsWanted.org is the new online home for MFG Day and it is also the core messaging theme for youth engagement work at the Manufacturing Institute. Tying careers to creativity is appealing to young people, says Chrys Kefalas, VP of brand strategy at the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM).
Manufacturers who are interested in hosting an MFG Day event will want to register at creatorswanted.org to gain access to resources and toolkits that can assist in planning.
