LANSING – With nearly 110,000 career openings through 2024 in the manufacturing industry in Michigan alone, Manufacturing Week – Sept. 30 – Oct. 6 – plays a key role in helping students explore the opportunities that exist in this high-demand, high-wage field.

Manufacturing Week events are happening around the state next week, as part of a national recognition celebrating the role manufacturing plays in our lives and the state’s economy.

Gov. Rick Snyder

“Michigan’s unique manufacturers produce some of the best products in the world and ‘Made in Michigan’ means something truly special,” Gov. Rick Snyder said. “By continuing to attract and develop talent, and invest in skilled trades education and training, Michigan is primed to remain a global manufacturing leader for years to come.”

Gov. Rick Snyder proclaimed Sept. 30 – Oct. 6 Michigan Manufacturing Week, encouraging residents to reflect on the road Michigan has traveled as a manufacturing state and the bright future that lies ahead.

Manufacturing employs more than 600,000 Michigan residents. While the state is the global leader in automotive, Michiganders manufacture a wide variety of products known around the state and around the world. According to the Michigan Manufacturers Association, there are nearly 11,400 manufacturers in the Great Lakes State. 

“Michigan has become an epicenter for manufacturing – creating more than 185,000 manufacturing jobs in the last nine years,” Talent and Economic Development Department of Michigan Chief Deputy Director Jeremy Hendges said. “These are great careers that give Michiganders the ability to make a difference – building things that move the state and the world. And by making sure students are aware of these careers and the skills needed to fill them, not only are we helping Michigan residents prosper, we’re keeping Michigan’s economy strong.”

This comes as the state recently unveiled its rejuvenated website designed to help students explore the wide array of careers – and the pathways to those careers – in the Professional Trades, including those in the manufacturing industry. Going-PRO.com is a student’s and job seeker’s one-stop online resource for exploring the wide array of Professional Trades careers throughout the state.

More than 200 events around the state will showcase modern manufacturing, the products created here in Michigan and career opportunities existing now and into the future.

“Manufacturing has had a special place in the history of Michigan and its future is just as bright,” MMA President & CEO Chuck Hadden said. “One in every nine MFG Day events happens in the Great Lakes State and Michigan Manufacturing Week will further connect employers with local students to build awareness of exciting career opportunities. I applaud Governor Snyder’s commitment to this industry and to skilled trades training like the Marshall Plan, Going PRO, and MMA’s own PRIME® program.”

Ingham Intermediate School District’s Wilson Talent Center is holding one event on Wednesday, Oct. 3, which includes a grand opening of its new William and Claire Dart Advanced Manufacturing Center.

“Partnerships, such as the one we have with the Dart Foundation, are critical to acquiring state of the art technology and tools to train our students,” Ingham ISD Superintendent, Jason Mellema, said. “We are thankful the Dart Foundation believes in investing in education and helping us support the growth of talent in our region. Through a $700,000 matching grant, we were able to reimagine our engineering, precision machining and welding programs, bring in new equipment and create collaborative space for our students to work side-by-side, just as they would in industry.”

The manufacturing industry in Michigan represents one-fifth of the state’s gross state product and injects more than $93 billion into the global economy annually, showing the important role the industry plays in the state’s continued economic resurgence.

To learn more about Manufacturing Day 2018, visit www.mimfgday.com. To search for manufacturing careers in Michigan, visit www.going-pro.com/mfgweek.