Factory Tours Attract Students to Manufacturing Careers

By Hale Foote, Scandic

Our factory recently had three very different groups of students visit our facility. I always learn as much from our visitors as they do from us.

Stanford’s ME219 class, “The Magic of Materials,” comes every semester to Scandic. Thirty smart masters/undergrad students roam our plant all morning. They interview our staff about stamping, ROI on tooling, mechanical coiling versus CNC, and more. I have to be nimble to explain fourslide versus progressive die stamping, or why beryllium copper (BeCu) has to be on the waterjet and not the laser. Our operators love showing off what they do to the “college kids.” These bright students will leave Stanford with a better appreciation for how things actually get made. And some call us years later to help on their project at Tesla, Medtronic, or HP. It’s a win-win.

We also had a team from UC Berkeley start a senior class case study to embed in a factory and identify a process they could improve. (I’m sure we have lots of possibilities!) We are honored that Berkeley professors named Scandic as a manufacturing center where their students could learn. I think they will be with us all semester. We have a war room reserved for them. Again, another win for both of us.

Finally, we had 30 rambunctious 10th graders from Castro Valley High School (CVHS) visit. It’s great that CVHS has a longstanding “Principles of Engineering” class, taught by Jessica Porter; we have always thought that the key to learning about manufacturing and engineering careers is exposing teens to real examples. “There’s a machine making a catheter; look, there’s a big press stamping a squeegee handle.”

I love the raw energy of high school visitors. Some are just flirting on their field trip, some are texting, but there are always a few who are laser-focused: Why is that machine not running? Can this waterjet water be recycled? (Yes, it is!); What does it take to work here? How much money do you make? High school students are a long-term investment, and we like doing it.

Three groups of students, three goals. Years ago I wrote an article for Springs (“Why and How to Conduct a Factory Tour,” Spring 2012), and our student visitors covered most of those bases.

I think there is a great match between SMI members and their local high schools. The key is to educate your employees about the purpose and goal of hosting a group of visitors, and to find the right contact at the school or county CTE office. We have hosted student tours for so long now that it’s barely a blip in our schedule. And a lot of our employees really enjoy the interaction with students! n strip: cold rolled high carbon/pre-tempered spring steels, coated, low carbon stainless, copper based alloys and aluminum ultra-narrow width, close-tolerance slitting edging: round, square, semi-round, deburred, custom, etc. oscillate (traverse) and ribbon wound coils ISO 9001: 2015 certified 43 years servicing the industry