Freeport, Texas – Day one of Creators Wanted Tour Live at Brazoswood Career and Technical Education Center, presented by Dow, had many highlights for Brazoswood High School and Brazosport High School students:
Big rewards: Students discovered for themselves the high-paying and expansive opportunities in the industry.
Voices of the future: Students heard from stars in manufacturing, including Sharon Hulgan, Plants A & B Manufacturing Director, Dow Texas Operations; Katy Theroux, Executive Vice President and Chief Human Resources Officer, Cornerstone Building Brands; Deborah McKitten, Vice President Operations, Polyamide & Precursors (N-CMN/P) & Yara Freeport, LLC, BASF; Britney English, Design Engineer, Energy Solutions, Fluor; Kalyani Martinelango Associate R&D Director, Dow; Bralade Emenanjo; Kaylee Hammontree, Unit Leader, Poly 5 & 6 Operations Freeport, Dow; and Victor Hernandez, Polyethylene 3 Analytical Technician, Dow.
Making the future: The much-anticipated Creators Wanted immersive experience didn’t disappoint, as students busted myths, solved puzzles, cracked riddles and worked together as teams to get to the gateway to the future. They also learned more about the industry at stations by Dow, The Manufacturing Institute, FactoryFix, Chart Industries and Turner Industries. And they met a robotic four-legged friend.
Union Pacific Railroad is promoting opportunities for women who might not have thought about a career in rail previously—and they’ve got big plans to do it. Union Pacific intends to double the number of women in its workforce within the next 10 years. The initiative that works in tandem with Creators Wanted is called Careers on Track and is designed to inspire more women and youth to pursue modern industry careers through workforce development and career solutions. Careers offer great pay, great camaraderie and the chance to learn one of America’s most complex logistical networks inside out. There are lots of opportunities for travel within the 23 states in which the railroad operates. Union Pacific’s motto is “Building America” and that’s exactly what their team gets to do everyday. But don’t just take our word for it. Click play below to hear the stories an inspiring trio of UP women – Tina, Snigdha, and Belin – and then let’s go create the future!
Creators Wanted, the manufacturing industry’s largest campaign to build the workforce of tomorrow, has launched a beta version for a new online manufacturing career pathways resource for students. A joint effort of the National Association of Manufacturers, the largest manufacturing trade association in the United States, and The Manufacturing Institute, the 501(c)(3) workforce development and education partner of the NAM, the hub of resources looks to match newfound interest in manufacturing careers with jobs and pathways to those careers across the country. Two important notes:
On this beta version, users can can click on “Explore New Frontiers,” “Engineer and Design the Future” and “Do Hands-On Work” to preview stories of creators and experience the dynamic layouts ready to be populated with more stories as companies continue to join the Creators Wanted campaign.
Site users can click on the “View Career Opportunities” bar in the upper righthand corner and see the job, internship, apprenticeship, certification and degree resources the campaign has curated based on the first five stops of the Creators Wanted Tour Live, the parent, teacher and student-endorsed traveling immersive experience, featuring manufacturing exhibits, demos, hands-on activities, mentorship and education and job resources to inspire, educate and empower a new generation of creators in the United States.
“If manufacturers, colleges, universities, technical and vocational schools, summer camp programs and others have resources that they’d recommend including on Creators Connect, we encourage them to submit them on the main resources page,” said Chrys Kefalas, Chief Strategist of Creators Wanted. “We aim to be the industry’s source for internship, apprenticeship, certification and degree resources—a space currently without any consolidated information for students, parents, career mentors and emerging workers. We’re changing that, thanks to the supporters of Creators Wanted.”
It’s back! Following a four-month break, the award-winning Creators Wanted Live Tour hit Scottsdale, Arizona, this week as manufacturers gathered nearby for the NAM board meeting. The attendee response: pure excitement.
Having a blast: Hundreds of manufacturing leaders and teens from the Scottsdale Unified School District and Phoenix-area YMCA chapters attended the Creators Wanted tour stop.
Students spent time “racing to the future” in the immersive mobile experience, exploring the information hubs and exhibits by FactoryFix, Benchmark and Thermo Fisher Scientific, meeting and chatting with Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan and more.
Welcome news: The mobile experience, a project of the NAM and its workforce development and education partner The Manufacturing Institute, shared some big news during its stop in Arizona: the president, CEO and owner of Creators Wanted sponsor Nephron Pharmaceuticals Corporation, Lou Kennedy, committed to contribute and raise $1 million for the member-driven initiative to inspire the next generation of manufacturers.
In recognition of Kennedy’s exceptional leadership in manufacturing, the NAM presented her with the Manufacturing Icon Award.
Big impact: The tour stop in Scottsdale resulted in 25,000 new student, emerging-worker and career-mentor email subscribers—all individuals who will help manufacturers fill the talent pipeline.
CNBC coverage: Snap-on Incorporated Chairman and CEO and NAM Executive Committee member Nick Pinchuk went on “Squawk on the Street” Tuesday to talk about Creators Wanted and strengthening the supply chain. NAM President and CEO Jay Timmons talked to CNBC the same day.
“One of the reasons I’m here with the National Association of Manufacturers is because right behind me is our initiative to help fill the skills gap in manufacturing,” Pinchuk said on the ground in Arizona. “One of the problems is [people] view manufacturing as something that other people’s kids do. Well, this mobile interactive unit right behind me is a big factor in that. … It tells you, ‘Boy, manufacturing is not dark, dumb and dirty, as some people think. It’s a cool place to be.’”
Timmons told CNBC he sees more manufacturing returning to the U.S. from offshore—and that the industry will figure out how to overcome current challenges. “Manufacturers can rise to the solution,” he said. “We always do.”
Op-ed: Timmons penned an op-ed for The Arizona Republic in which he termed the next 10 years “a manufacturing decade.”
Timmons wrote that for U.S. manufacturing to continue to make “game-changing advances that improve the quality of life for everybody,” Congress must move forward with pending “global competitiveness” legislation, restore “sensible [tax] incentives” that foster research and development and pass comprehensive immigration reform.
What’s next: Creators Wanted stops next in Freeport, Texas, beginning on April 25, presented by Dow. The campaign is also working to raise additional funding to sustain a fall tour in 2022.
Want to join Kennedy in broadening the reach of Creators Wanted? Email Creators Wanted Finance Director Barret Kedzior at [email protected].
Originally published on March 11, 2022, in Input, the NAM’s morning newsletter for manufacturing executives.
The National Association of Manufacturers and The Manufacturing Institute’s Creators Wanted campaign took the Creators Wanted Tour Live in 2021 to Ohio, South Carolina, Iowa, North Carolina and Texas–with more than 3,500 attendees and 2,700 students participating in the mobile experience, while building an email roster of more than 150,000 people interested in manufacturing careers.
We’re progressing to the campaign goals of recruiting 600,000 new manufacturers, as well as increasing the number of students enrolling in technical and vocational schools or reskilling programs by 25% and increasing the positive perception of the industry among parents to 50% from 27%. And we’re just getting started.
As part of Creators Wanted Tour Live 2021, more than 2,700 students had their eyes opened to the possibilities and fun of well-paying modern manufacturing careers-and hundreds of thousands more signed up to be part of the future of manufacturing. But how did this momentum start? Here is part of our story.
NAM Newsroom — As the final 2021 stop on the Creators Wanted Tour Live circuit, Dallas/Fort Worth had quite a few expectations to live up to—and live up to them it did.
Big impact: With more than 1,000 students attending events, participating in panel talks and discussions and “racing to the future” in the Creators Wanted immersive experience, the Dallas/Fort Worth visit of the joint NAM/Manufacturing Institute project designed to inspire and educate the next generation of manufacturers had a very large audience—and a receptive one at that.
“When we first mentioned it to them, they had never heard of Creators Wanted,” said Roberta Woodard, a high school professor at TCC South Collegiate High School in Fort Worth, of her students, who attended the Creators Wanted events. “But they were really excited about obtaining any information that they could to help prepare them for graduation.… These kids have [now] shown a great interest in hopping into the workforce as soon as they graduate.”
A truly hands-on experience: During the four-day tour stop, students, teachers and parents were able to try out numerous activities related to manufacturing, including using the VRTEX virtual reality arc welding training system and piloting drones at the Fort Worth Independent School District’s mobile STEM lab, exploring Vuforia augmented reality by PTC, interacting with displays by, and meeting creators at, Stanley Black & Decker, Cornerstone Building Brands, CRH and Nucor and completing the puzzles and escape-room challenges in the Creators Wanted mobile experience.
The chance to see and feel manufacturing firsthand was a game-changer for many attendees.
“Sometimes it’s hard to teach students from a textbook, or even from online materials,” said Tuan Tran, professor of career and technical education at TCC South Collegiate High School. “And when they see real people here in front of them, talking to them, it gives them a little bit of a peek into what’s possible in the future.”
Family and money: One of the possibilities when it comes to manufacturing careers is the opportunity to make a very comfortable living, and to do so in an environment that values its employees, panelists told Creators Wanted attendees.
“Now more than ever we need people in trades, we need people in the manufacturing industry, so manufacturing companies are starting to pay [what] you’re worth,” Oldcastle Infrastructure Plant Manager Brandon Castillo said during a Creators Wanted panel talk and Q&A session, echoing the findings of a recent joint MI–Deloitte study, which found that if the skills gap continues on the current trajectory, the U.S. will have more than 2 million unfilled manufacturing jobs by 2030.
“For me, it allows me the ability to take my kids to Disneyland or Disney World and just do a bunch of family activities that I’m not sure would be afforded to me if I didn’t choose manufacturing.”
News nods: Texas and national media outlets, including the Fort Worth Business Press, NBC 5 Dallas/Fort Worth, KRLD Morning News 1080, The Dana Show and The Dan Bongino Show covered Creators Wanted Tour Live Dallas/Fort Worth.
Highlights from the stop: Here is a glance at some of the action:
Crowley High School students watch, mesmerized, as they see the laser engraver—and modern technology—help them unlock the next room of the immersive challenge. More than 74% of students who were skeptical about manufacturing left the experience either very or somewhat interested in learning more about manufacturing careers.
Photograph by Fritz Nordengren/NAM
Students from Tarrant County College South hear about the career paths at Stanley Black & Decker.
Photograph by Fritz Nordengren/NAM
Students from Young Men’s Leadership Academy listen as Khristopher Kuker, plant manager, Dallas U.S. Windows Plant, Cornerstone Building Brands, lays out potential career paths at the company.
Photograph by Fritz Nordengren/NAM
CRH brought crafts to the table, giving students a chance to connect one of its products, Sakrete concrete, with some of the attributes of manufacturing careers.
Photograph by Fritz Nordengren/NAM
A student from North Crowley High School reacts to PTC’s augmented reality software.
Photograph by Fritz Nordengren/NAM
The “race to the future” had students working together to correctly identify the Honda vehicle from hints “left” inside the immersive experience from design, engineering and testing Honda associates.
On stage, Specialty Packaging President Hank Dorris and his mentee, Brian Wade, emphasize the importance of mentorship to students at Jacquet Middle School. Dorris, whose company makes products for companies such as Dunkin’ Donuts, Sonic, Chili’s and Wrigley, was personally instrumental in bringing the tour to Fort Worth, marshalling major school districts and key partners to engage as many students as possible.
Photograph by Fritz Nordengren/NAM
The social media response: School participants, including Tarrant County College and Kennedale Career & Technical Education, tweeted photos of their students learning about manufacturing careers—and having a blast doing it.
The tally: In addition to more than 1,000 students who joined the tour, the tour stop helped Creators Wanted move beyond 153,000 email signups from students and other individuals interested in manufacturing careers and exceed 138 million digital impressions.
The last word: The Creators Wanted Tour Live had such a positive reception it was invited for an encore. Said Woodard: “You guys rock. Come back and see us.”
What was the collective mood at the premier event of Creators Wanted Tour Live’s fifth stop? Upbeat and excited. In Dallas/Fort Worth Tuesday, before racing to the future in the Creators Wanted mobile experience, students from Tarrant County College and local high schools heard from leaders in education and manufacturing about the industry’s many exciting career opportunities.
