On Friday, October 6th, Darke County students celebrated National Manufacturing Day by touring local manufacturing companies. More than 500 sophomores from area schools had the opportunity to see demonstrations of modern manufacturing and hear about the wide range of careers available locally.
This is the tenth year that Darke County schools have been paired with local companies for visits. Our manufacturers were excited to share the wide range of career opportunities available with their companies. As part of Manufacturing Day, students completed an assessment that helped them to identify with the career opportunities that were shared by our local manufacturers. This event, coordinated by Darke County Economic Development, is part of a comprehensive effort to encourage and grow a skilled workforce to meet the current and future workforce demands of the region.
In addition to seeing modern manufacturing environments with state-of-the-art equipment and robotics, students also learned:
- About the wide range of careers available through manufacturing which require different levels of technical and formal education.
- Many manufacturers in the area will pay for college or technical training for their workforce if it corresponds to a position within the company.
- There are additional options after high school other than college or straight to work. Opportunities exist to work and make money while furthering their education.
We would like to thank our host manufacturers – ARCH Cutting Tools, Fort Recovery Industries, JAFE Decorating, Klockner Pentaplast, Midmark Corporation, Moriroku Technology North America, Superior Aluminum Products, and Whirlpool Corporation. We would also like to thank Darke County High Schools – Ansonia, Arcanum-Butler, Bradford, Franklin Monroe, Greenville, Mississinawa Valley, Tri-Village, and Versailles – for their support of and participation in this event.
