Part 1 of a 2 part series.

With the manufacturing industry becoming more automated, making tasks less about brawn and more about brain, you’d think that women would make up more of the workforce. But, only 29 percent of the manufacturing workforce represents women¹.

If the industry’s current skilled labor crisis is going to be resolved, one crucial element of that resolution will be a significant increase in the number of female employees.

But some young women don’t know about specific manufacturing careers that relate to their interests or how well suited they may be to fill those jobs. Others know about the opportunities but think that they won’t be accepted in a male-dominated industry.

One sure way to initiate change is to support programs that introduce young women to manufacturing. Then, support the educational efforts of those young women who choose to complete post-secondary studies leading to manufacturing careers. Nuts, Bolts & Thingamajigs® (NBT) does both.

Karolina was one of those high schoolers who knew that she was good in math and science and chose to explore engineering as a career.

She was accepted into the prestigious engineering program at Purdue University but found that her financial aid fell short of what was needed. So, she left the university in her first semester and entered the engineering technology program at her local community college, Triton College, River Grove, Ill. There she came under the mentorship of Antigone Sharris, the female who headed the engineering technology department. She was inspired to become a problem-solver who developed into a mentor for other girls younger than herself and won a Nuts, Bolts & Thingamajigs scholarship in 2014.

“Community college is the best thing that ever happened to me. At Triton I had the chance to do real-world, work-with-your-hands kinds of assignments,” she said. “As I have shared stories of my experiences with work colleagues — who are mostly guys and completed university engineering programs — most were envious of the opportunities I had. That really opened my eyes to how valuable my community college program was. I was also extremely lucky to study under a female department chair who had her own successful manufacturing career before turning to teaching, which was a special advantage for me.”

Karolina began her career at Milton Industries as an intern and obtained diverse experiences in areas such as purchasing, design engineering, quality control, and production engineering. She eventually became a full-time employee and does product development engineering and product management working on a government project.

Karolina offers sound advice to young women who might be a bit nervous about whether the manufacturing atmosphere is right for them. “Don’t be intimidated by the number of guys you’ll be surrounded by in manufacturing and engineering,” she cautions.

“There may be a few who don’t want to work with women, but there are so many who are nice, respectful, and will include you in the team right away.  Your work and your actions will speak for you.  You can, and will, learn something of value from everyone you encounter at work — good experiences and bad. I have a great mentor, he’s an experienced engineer who put me through the proper steps on each project so that I could learn the right methods and processes by myself, yet always found opportunities to explain things to me so I would understand the ‘why’ behind each decision. Now, he comes to me for input and ideas!”

She also advises young girls who like science and math to consider engineering. “It’s so broad and so diverse that it offers unlimited opportunities.” For two summers Karolina served as a college mentor in the girls manufacturing camp held every summer at Triton College, which was started under the NBT grant program. “I loved being able to release the engineer inside each of the young girls participating in the camp,” she said.

Karolina is now a U.S. citizen. She entered her studies as an immigrant from Poland, but now embraces her new country and the opportunities it presents.  She’s proudly able to travel for business across the globe on a U.S. passport!

The programs of NBT currently serve dozens of scholarship recipients and hundreds of young campers each year.

Donors make these programs possible and know that the future of manufacturing depends on this kind support. They recognize the value of one-on-one mentoring for both the campers and the individual scholarship recipients. This means NBT is reaching potential employees — one at a time — and the investment is paying off for students like Karolina.

Interested in supporting programs that introduce young women to manufacturing?

Donate

Endnote

​¹ “Employed persons by detailed industry, sex, race, and Hispanic or Latino ethnicity; Labor force statistics from the Current Population Survey,” Bureau of Labor Statistics