Grants Awarded to Community and Technical Colleges Offering Summer Day Camp Experiences Focused on Manufacturing for Youth

Nuts, Bolts & Thingamajigs® (NBT), the foundation of the Fabricators & Manufacturers Association, Intl.® (FMA), announces that 89 programs will receive 2018 summer manufacturing camp grants.

NBT will award a total of $135,500 in funding grants, ranging from $1,000 to $2,500, to community colleges and technical high schools offering summer day camp experiences that introduce young people, ages 12 to 16, to careers in manufacturing and engineering. NBT also provides each camp with curriculum guides, customized t-shirts, marketing help, and other materials. In addition, NBT will support 17 affiliate camps by providing the same camp materials but no funding.

Major sponsors of these camps are the CNA Foundation of Chicago, Mastercut Tool Corporation, and SolidWorks Corporation.

The 2018 camp grant winners are (listed alphabetically by school name):

 *FMA Certified Education Center members

The camps target youth in middle and high school, introducing them to practical applications of math, science, and engineering principles. The camps afford students the opportunities to tour local manufacturing companies, work directly with technology, and design and manufacture a product they can take home. SolidWorks Corporation supports NBT camps with a generous donation of 365-day licenses of their CAD/CAM student edition design software.

“The demand for highly skilled manufacturing professionals is growing each year, and we don’t see that demand subsiding for decades,” said Warren Long, NBT board chair and commodity manager, Briggs & Stratton Products Group. “It is NBT’s mission to find the workforce of the future, and summer camps introduce young people to manufacturing in a way that sparks their passion for making things. Camp participants learn about the companies in their area, and they leave camp excited and encouraged to pursue the skills training they need for a successful career in manufacturing. Inspiring young people to consider these careers will have a positive impact on technical education programs, create a more qualified workforce, and secure American manufacturing for the next generation.”

Edward Youdell, president and CEO of FMA and NBT, added, “The manufacturing skilled labor shortage won’t solve itself. These camps provide youth with exposure to vocational and technical trades that no longer is available in most public education systems. For most of the young people who attend these camps, it is their first introduction to how things are made and what skills are required for entry into the world of manufacturing. They often discover that the training they will need to get started is readily available in their local community at the very school where they are attending camp.”