October 11, 2013 at 4:55 p.m.
Second annual 'Heavy Metal Tour' introduces middle schoolers to manufacturing careers
Second annual 'Heavy Metal Tour' introduces middle schoolers to manufacturing careers
Enter initiatives like the "Heavy Metal Tour."
Oldenburg Group was one of several manufacturing sites in the Rhinelander, Tomahawk, Antigo and Wausau areas visited Wednesday by nearly 1,400 eighth graders as part of the second annual event. The "Heavy Metal Tour" aims to expose younger students to the career pathways available to them in the area of manufacturing.
"It can be hard to find people up here in the Northwoods," Sedlacek said. "Getting them engaged at an earlier age is really critical for this area."
Sedlacek serves on the boards for North Central Wisconsin Workforce Development and Grow North and is the president of the Northwoods Manufacturers Alliance. He said for all three of those boards the "Heavy Metal Tour" has been a top discussion item.
"The primary focus is to engage (these students) and really try to keep the talent here (in the Northwoods)," Sedlacek said. "Overall it's a great program."
The second go-around for the "Heavy Metal Tour" Wednesday marked a major expansion for the program. Last year, approximately 350 eighth graders from 10 different Northwoods school districts were involved. There were eight manufacturing facilities available for them to tour.
This year the numbers were nearly 1,400 eighth graders from 22 different school districts and 26 participating manufacturers. Each student group had the opportunity to tour two different manufacturing facilities. Also participating were Nicolet Area Technical College and Northcentral Technical College where students learned about the educational pathways to what employers are touting as "Gold Collar Careers" - good-paying, highly-skilled, technologically-advanced manufacturing jobs far from the misconception that the manufacturing industry is dirty and low-level.
"Manufacturing is different today than when I was in eighth grade," Nicolet College President Elizabeth Burmaster said. "There's nothing better than seeing young people excited about their future potential."
Burmaster said the "Heavy Metal Tour" fits well into one of Nicolet College's missions - providing a seamless transition from the PK-12 system into secondary education and eventually a career.
"(Introducing students to manufacturing careers in eighth grade) is exactly the right direction because they have to start developing that pathway," Burmaster said. "Taking the right classes in high school (for what they want to do). Taking advantage of things like transcripted credit (where high school classes can be applied toward technical college credits)."
Nicolet College PK-16 coordinator Teri Phalin chairs a committee that meets monthly called the School to Career Consortium. On the committee are representatives from each school district in the Nicolet College area. Phalin said the committee's activities used to be more focused on high schoolers, but now they're trying to target middle schoolers as well. The "Heavy Metal Tour" addresses that goal.
"This is a great introduction to what's out there," Phalin said. "They'll be picking their high school classes soon. The presenters here are talking about what classes they would need (for a career in manufacturing)."
Before coming to Rhinelander and working for Oldenburg Group, Sedlacek said he started on the shop floor of another company. Over the last 15 years, he balanced raising a family with continuing his education to eventually arrive at his current position as a plant manager.
Sedlacek said ideally all the necessary education would have come first and Wednesday he tried to use his own experiences to show students touring Oldenburg Group what they would need to do if they're interested in a manufacturing career.
"I talked about going to school, hard work, getting good grades, the importance of math," Sedlacek said. "Hopefully they grasped it. They are eighth-grade students after all."
Kyle Rogers may be reached at [email protected].
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