Manufacturing may be one of Nebraska’s largest industries, but many students have never seen it up close– something Southeast Community College hopes to change with its Manufacturing and Engineering Day.
The event will be Tuesday, Oct. 21, from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. all across the SCC Milford Campus.
Sign up, available on the school’s website, is open to ninth through 12th graders. Many schools will bring students to the event in hopes to open their eyes to the variety of in-demand, high-impact and technology-driven careers that engineering and manufacturing fields have to offer.
“We’re excited to host,” said Caleb Herwick, the dean of advanced technology and skilled trades programs at SCC. “Manufacturing Day is always an exciting one because of how hidden it sometimes is, and people don’t know what manufacturing is. If you don’t know what that is, if you’re looking for a good career opportunity or pathway, this would be a great day for our future workforce to check out.”
SCC began offering the annual event a few years ago as part of its initiative to reach high school students who may be interested in pursuing an education path at SCC. Herwick said manufacturing is one of the largest industry sectors in Nebraska, and the event helps bring awareness to all it has to offer.
Attendees will participate in rotations that provide opportunities to learn about career fields in design and drafting technology, electrical and electromechanical technology, electronic systems technology, energy generation operations, manufacturing engineering technology, non-destructive testing technology, precision machining and automation technology and welding technology.
Faculty, students and industry partners will run the stations, which will give students hands-on experience in the world of manufacturing. For example, students will have the chance to engrave a design onto a piece of aluminum and add color, perform non-destructive testing with welds, use HoloLens technology, work with robots and more.
“We probably have one or two that maybe are a little more demonstration than hands-on participation, but by and large, the students will have the safety glasses on, the PPE on needed and they’ll actually be doing the activity along with the presenters,” Herwick said. “It’s anything that gets their hands dirty and get them engaged and interacting with some of the tasks related to manufacturing.”
Herwick said SCC has technology and equipment that rivals some four-year universities, and the students and their guardians who attend Manufacturing and Engineering Day often report loving the hands-on nature of the event.
“We don’t spend a lot of time talking and trying to pound in the theory at this point; we’re just trying to show them some of those hands-on mechanical types of skills that would be beneficial and would lend themselves to that type of pathway,” he said.
SCC is also ramping up its exploratory camp experiences, in which a wide range of age groups will dive into a career or technical pathway at SCC. Students practiced hands-on welding, non-destructive testing, precision machining, land surveying and energy generation in a week-long pilot camp this summer.
“That's really something that we're targeting moving forward to build that exposure and build that awareness outside of just the traditional high school experience, in addition to these career days and also getting students the opportunity to get their hands dirty and realize what those career opportunities are and what exists within the whole career and technical field,” Herwick said.
