Marking its second year as a member of the National Association of Manufacturers’ (NAM) and Manufacturing Institute’s (MI) “Dream It. Do It.” program, Cooper Tire will connect with more than 10,000 students — primarily eighth graders — for Manufacturing Day (MFG Day) events throughout October. Cooper will focus on the communities where the company has major facilities—Findlay, Ohio; Texarkana, Arkansas; and Tupelo, Mississippi. In addition to participating in community-wide efforts, the company will host its own Cooper Manufacturing Experience events. These highly interactive, hands-on events have been planned by the company’s Dream Team, a group of 40 employees from across Cooper who work with students and others all year long in efforts to educate and improve the image of careers in manufacturing to help strengthen the future workforce pipeline.
“If we want students to think about a career in manufacturing, we need to help them understand how exciting and technology-driven today’s manufacturing industry really is,” said Brenda Harmon, Cooper’s chief human resources officer. “There is an entire generation of young people who have been steered away from manufacturing or at least not encouraged to explore working in manufacturing. As a result, many good jobs, which may or may not require a college or technical degree, go unfilled at American manufacturers, including Cooper. We are working to change this dynamic starting with young people at the ages where they are forming their impressions of what they may want to do and where they may want to work.”
Elizabeth Taylor, a chemical engineer for Cooper in Tupelo, said, “I am excited to be a part of Cooper’s Dream Team because this effort gives us the opportunity to positively impact young people in our communities in many different ways, including making them aware of careers in manufacturing. Manufacturing today is very dynamic and technical and it is important for kids, their parents and teachers to understand this. Our Dream Team brings people who actually work in manufacturing out to schools, universities and other venues where students can get to know us and hear about our personal experiences in manufacturing while also learning about manufacturing and careers in the field.”
While MFG Day is officially Oct. 7 this year, the Cooper Manufacturing Experience will be offered to students throughout the entire month. Students who attend the Cooper Manufacturing Experience in all three communities will be encouraged to share their experiences through social media using #cooperiscool and #mfgday16, which will expand awareness of manufacturing to family and friends across the U.S.
