Students And Community Learn More About Manufacturing Jobs

Around 800 area high school students got to stop at local manufacturing businesses and get hands-on Thursday as part of Minnesota Manufacturing Week.

Using a little engineering, and a lot of tape, they were challenged to build a roller coaster. The goal was to get a ball into a cup at the end.

"We just made a game out of it, spent some time on it," Jason Bruns, director of the Engineering Center of Excellence, said. "They had lots of tape, lots of fun. Working in teams; Teamwork is very important in the design and manufacturing."

That was just one stop of day, the students also joined in on the 2017 Tour of Manufacturing.

"Kids are able to walk through a business and understand there's concepts created and look at the manufacturability of how they made everything come to life and everything happen," Bruns said.

Jesse Olson, owner of Medieval Metalwerx, said these tours are an opportunity to show both students and the community what a manufacturing job actually looks like.

"We break down some of the stereotypes of, you know, dirty, grungy, manual labor. It's very technical and you use a lot of this today versus a lot of the hands."

And it's not just for students, the tours are open to anyone in the community who wants an inside look at manufacturing jobs.

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