Student Center

 

Welcome to the Student Center, your link to building a career in metal forming and fabricating. Learn about available scholarships, find salary information for different careers in metal forming, and even find manufacturing camps and schools to prepare for your career.

Scholarships

Scholarship funds are available to students seeking careers in manufacturing. Learn about the eligibility criteria, and download an application today.

FMA proudly announced its Scholarship Winners for the 2012-2013 academic year.  The 10 awards, totaling $16,000, will help cover tuition, fees, and books for students enrolled in programs that lead to technical careers.

Manufacturing Summer Camps

Create 3-D design on a computer (CAD), transfer the design to a computer numeric control (CNC) machine, take the finished product home after it’s built, and tour local companies to see if you can do this for a good living! Sound exciting? This is the basic premise of the summer manufacturing camps funded by NBT.

Trade Schools, Colleges, and Universities

Are you seeking a technical college or trade school program in manufacturing? Check out these resources: Certified Education Centers and College Navigator. When using the College Navigator select Precision Production as the program/major choice to begin a drill down into manufacturing options.

Videos and Podcasts

Watch videos on careers in manufacturing including Manufacturing Now, Challenge of Manufacturing, and Engineering Making it Work. Also see videos on assembly, bending, clinching, hydroforming, punching, shearing, stamping, and welding.

Manufacturing Day

Nuts, Bolts & Thingamajigs endorses and recommends the 2nd annual national Manufacturing Day, October 4, 2013 as an activity for parents and students or school groups. On Manufacturing Day companies across North America invite in members of their community to showcase their shop facilities, the kinds of jobs they have available, the work they do and the equipment they use. There’s no better way to experience what work is really like in America’s manufacturing sector. Recommended for students, teachers, counselors and parents.
Learn more and discover which companies in your region are hosting events.

FIRST Robotics

Watch the official FIRST Robotics safety video featuring Blair and Mark, your favorite emcees from the
National Competition—with a special offer for FIRST Robotics teams!

Are You a Young Inventor?

Check out the exciting competition offered each year for toy and game inventors age 18 or younger
by the Chicago Toy and Game Expo.

If you’ve got a great idea or just want to be inspired by other inventors, check out this website. It’s spawned a new TV show (8/30/11) on the Sundance Channel too. Get inspired, get inventing. You might be the next Thomas Edison or Bill Gates — but you won’t know if you don’t try.

Careers

Tremendous opportunities are available within the field of metal forming and fabricating. The following links will take you to specific job categories at the U.S. Department of Labor will detail the nature of the work, working conditions, training required, other qualifications, current employment statistics, job outlook projections, and earnings potential for each job category.
Choose a career for more information:

• Assemblers and fabricators
• Computer control programmers and operators
• Engineers
• Industrial production managers
• Machine setters, operators, and tenders-metal and plastic
• Sheet metal workers
• Welding, soldering, and brazing worker

Dream It. Do It. Campaign

Visit the Dream It – Do It Campaign of the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM). Take the Dream Career Quiz, see Career Profiles, use the Career Calculator, or simply check out the Cool Videos of Stuff Being Made