An entire month of celebrating manufacturing in New Hampshire!

For the last 7 years New Hampshire Manufacturing Extension Partnership with help from the NH Department of Business and Economic Affairs, the Community College System of New Hampshire, the New Hampshire Department of Education and many other partners organized NH Manufacturing Month. NHMEP hopes to encourage students into building their career with local manufacturers, keeping them in state after graduation.

In previous years, throughout the month of October, high school and middle school students went on field trips to visit local manufacturers. During those trips, manufacturers had the opportunity to show students how cool manufacturing is and inform them of all the in demand careers their field has to offer.

This year, our plan is to engage students in virtual visits to manufacturers.

The goal is to build digital content to bring the in person event into a screen format. Our suggestion is a power point presentation geared towards high school students to increase awareness of career pathways that your manufacturing organization offers. Some suggestions for the power point presentations are:

These are some ideas of how to develop points of interaction and engagement. The sky is the limit so feel free to use your own method to showcase your products and services.

We will allocate about one hour for each session and this will include Q&A from the attendees. The platform for these meetings will be Zoom. The event will take place every Tuesday and Thursday from 10am-11am and 1pm-2pm starting on October 1^st.

Manufacturing Month is capped each year by the Annual Governor’s Advanced Manufacturing and High Technology Summit, which will be virtual in 2020 and feature expert speakers, panelists and interactive workshops.

To participate, email Training Coordinator Jill Duddy – jilliand@nhmep.org

During Manufacturing Month in October 2019, NHMEP successfully facilitated 43 high school student tours of 45 manufacturers throughout the state to create awareness and interest in the various products that are made in NH, along with new technologies and career pathways.

Sixty-three students gave positive feedback on tour experiences of manufacturing companies in their region. 77% of students were either not aware or only somewhat aware of advanced manufacturing prior to their field trip, a 13% decrease from 2018. As a result of their tours, 85% would consider or highly consider a career in manufacturing, an 18% increase from last year.

“Just like any job, it’s really important for students to be able to see real-world applications of what they learn in school and what the job possibilities and job opportunities are,” said Spaulding High School senior Ricky Heath who toured RP Abrasives in Spaulding, among other local manufacturing facilities. “So it’s really nice to be able to have the connections to go out and experience what the real working world is like. It’s something you can’t really learn in school, you can’t really learn off a YouTube video.”