Girls encouraged to join work world in manufacturing sector

Gillian Scmeider loved what she was seeing Friday, March 7, at Black Hawk College in Moline. The 13-year-old girl from Orion Middle School was one of nearly 100 young girls to learn about jobs in the manufacturing world during a summit at the college. Gillian and many of her classmates toured a manufacturing lab on […]

Gillian Scmeider loved what she was seeing Friday, March 7, at Black Hawk College in Moline. The 13-year-old girl from Orion Middle School was one of nearly 100 young girls to learn about jobs in the manufacturing world during a summit at the college. Gillian and many of her classmates toured a manufacturing lab on the Moline campus and got a look at machinery, such as a 3D printer, a CNC machine making keychains and virtual welding equipment. “It’s really cool to see the guys run all this machinery. … I’m thinking about doing this some day,” she said. A short distance away, Levy Currie, 13, a student at Central Junior High School, finished a lesson on a virtual welding machine. She liked the experience, but wasn’t convinced about making it a job.

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“It was fun, but I’m not thinking about doing that for a living,” she added. Levy and Gillian were two of 91 junior high school girls from five area school districts in Illinois to take part in the Women in Manufacturing Summit at Black Hawk on Friday. In addition to getting to see manufacturing equipment, the girls heard from a panel of five women working in the manufacturing field who encouraged the young students to get involved in fields of work that have often been male dominated. They also saw demonstrations on assembly line production, supply chain management and much more. All those speeches and demos had one goal – get junior high school girls to at least start thinking about a career in manufacturing. “There’s this view that manufacturing is dark, dirty and dangerous. It’s not. … It can be a very lucrative career,” said Jodi Werkheiser, a professor of computer science applications at Black Hawk and one of the summit’s organizers. Ms. Werkheiser and others at the Friday summit added that times are changing. Even though the manufacturing industry has been male dominated, women are increasingly entering the field. While men fill about 67% of the jobs in the manufacturing section, more women continue to enter the field. One of the reasons for this change is that the traditional manual labor jobs are changing in the field, and being replaced by people who have skills to operate machinery in a highly automated environment, according to the U.S. Department of Commerce. “Manufacturing today is not what my grandfather would do when he worked in a steelmill,” said Black Hawk College President Jeremy Thomas. He added that today’s manufacturing workforce needs people with computer, management, inventory control and engineering skills. U.S. Rep. Eric Sorensen, D – District 17, also told the girls on Friday that they are needed in today’s workforce. “I want you to try as hard as you can. .. Go out in the world and make new things,” he said. During an introduction session at the seminar, Illinois State Senator Mike Halpin, D-Rock Island, told the girls that almost everyday he talks to employers in the region who are looking for workers who have those skills. Those employers don’t care if those workers are male or female. Those messages were also delivered to the girls during a Friday afternoon panel presentation led for five area women working in manufacturing. Those women were:  

• Jill Castree, a senior manager of supply management chain for Mitsubishi Logisnext Americas.
• Cirstie Noble, who has worked for Electro Freeze for 10 years. She has helped schedule materials and finished assemblies at all levels of the factory.
• Mandy Parchert. She works in human resources as the manager for university and community relations for HNI Corp.
• Payton Rousseau. She is a John Deere product manager for data platform and analytics for the Construction and Forestry division.
• Sara Ryan. She has been with McLaughlin Body Co. for about 21 years. Some of her jobs have included industrial engineer, industrial engineering manager, account manager and more.

In addition to the panel discussion, the seminar – held in conjunction with International Women’s Day, which was Saturday, March 8 – featured several hands-on lessons and demonstrations during a series of breakout sessions for the girls. In one of those sessions, Paul Smith, a teacher at Black Hawk, showed groups of students a CNC machine – or computer-controlled machine that uses pre-programmed software to perform manufacturing tasks. During Friday’s demonstration, that task was making small keychains. He told the girls that the manufacturing world needs people who are skilled operators of such machinery. “I worked at John Deere for many years. I had many women work for me, and they were the best machine operators I had,” Mr. Smith said. Several of the teachers accompanying the girls to Black Hawk on Friday said they hope their students will get the message careers are available in the manufacturing sectors. “I hope all these girls think about doing this for a living. … Work in manufacturing is not all grunt work,” said Anna Casey, a seventh-grade teacher at Orion Middle School, and one of the teachers who accompanied the girls.