a whole by encouraging businesses to
come to West Virginia, hire employees
within the state and invest back into the
local economy.
“Addressing this problem helps solve
many of the other issues that plague our
state and nation,” says Curry. “By helping
employers build their business, it pro-
vides more sustainability, they pay more
taxes, they hire more people, and then
those people in turn get increased skills
and wages so they purchase more things
and pay more sales and income taxes,
which then helps the state.”
Explore the New Manufacturing
Many students begin to ponder their
future in middle school and often go into
high school knowing what career options
they are interested in pursuing. Unfor-
tunately, many of those students do not
have a clear understanding of what man-
ufacturing is, or they envision working
in a dark, dank room where heavy lifting
is involved, according to Monica Cross,
West Virginia Manufacturers Association
Educational Fund’s program director.
“Research indicates that students start
exploring careers in middle school and
often choose the subsequent educational
pathway prior to entering high school,”
she says. “It’s difficult creating interest
in new educational pathways because
they’ve already taken different ones.”
Keeping that in mind, representatives
from Explore the New Manufacturing,
a program of the West Virginia Manu-
facturers Association Educational Fund,
work with middle schools through three
programs to encourage students to gain
an interest and pursue a career in man-
ufacturing, as well as educate them on
what the career really looks like. They
inform students about educational path-
ways, career opportunities and the level of
technology and innovation needed within
the manufacturing industry.
“Essentially, these programs link ed-
ucation and industry to create, cultivate
and develop a workforce pipeline and
provide opportunities to keep our young
folks in West Virginia,” says Cross. “The
goal is to share what modern manufac-
turing entails and explore the linkages
between students’ interests and the types
of jobs within the industry, as well as
create awareness of what is manufactured
on a small and large scale in our state.”
A student learns about the fractionation of a compound
solution like oil and water through distillation.
Photo by Explore the New Manufacturing.
This year, Explore the New Manufac-
turing launched the What’s So Cool About
Manufacturing Student Video Contest, a
new initiative for eighth graders in West
Virginia that allows them to visit a manu-
facturing facility where they can produce
video throughout the facility and inter-
view employees. Students then have a
chance to win one of three awards: Best
Manufacturing Message, Most Creative
and Viewer’s Choice.
The program is also working to build
more collaborative opportunities with
teachers and counselors across the state
to strengthen the pipeline between man-
ufacturing and education.
“The collaborative teams that are form-
ing across the state and championing our
program have been instrumental to our
continued development and growth,” says
Cross. “Providing a conduit for informa-
tion and building relationships to help
these students and support our educators
along these pathways is extraordinarily
rewarding.”
Step Up for Women Advanced
Manufacturing Pre-Apprenticeship
For some women in the state, being
the sole supporter of their household can
mean working two or three jobs just to
make ends meet. West Virginia Women
Work’s Step Up for Women Advanced
Manufacturing Pre-Apprenticeship aims to
alleviate some of that pressure by training
women to enter the manufacturing in-
dustry through an employment-based,
10-week-long pre-apprenticeship training
program. This program was designed to
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