For over 15 years, NBT’s summer manufacturing camp program has offered unique opportunities for youth ages 12 to 16 to explore the world of manufacturing through hands-on learning experiences at locations throughout the country. Participants discover a passion for working with their hands while learning about manufacturing careers in areas such as welding, robotics, engineering, 3D printing, CNC machining, and many more. Hosted by community colleges, trade schools, or technical high schools, NBT camps provide students with the opportunity to tour local manufacturing companies, work directly with advanced technologies and equipment, and design and manufacture a product they can take home.

Hosting NBT Camps Pays off for Schools

Camps provide many meaningful benefits to the schools and organizations that host the camps, well beyond the grant funds they receive from NBT. NBT camps reach youth at an age when they are beginning to think about their future careers and can choose educational options such as STEM-focused classes, thereby providing a pipeline of prospective technical program students. Also, as conveyed in NBT’s Program Impact Study, 100% of past summer manufacturing camp hosts reported that hosting a manufacturing camp helped to increase their school’s visibility and promote a positive image in the community.

This was the case for Northcentral Technical College (NTC) in Wausau, Wisconsin, who hosted its first NBT camp in 2018. Veronica Hope, a camp instructor who has been teaching welding at NTC for more than 20 years, stated “The camps are helping to draw students into our programs who might not have otherwise considered it. Most of our camp participants have no prior welding experience. By designing and completing a take-home project that includes multiple manufacturing practices, they get a sense of the full product development process. The campers have a great experience – it creates a lot of positive buzz surrounding our college and our manufacturing programs.”

NTC has been expanding their camp offerings over the last four years. Last summer, NTC developed a community project for their advanced campers, who designed and built a sculpture and installed it in a local park. “Their creativity, teamwork, and commitment to the project drove its success. It was so rewarding for them to see their work out in public view,” said Hope.

Connecting Manufacturers and Community

Hope also emphasized that hosting NBT summer manufacturing camps has provided benefits not only to their school, but to the manufacturers and community members in the surrounding region as well. “Summer camps provide younger students early exposure to manufacturing-related skills and programs,” she said. “This early exposure informs crucial decisions in students’ educational paths that prepare them for the workforce. Positive camp experiences encourage students to take high school courses that further explore manufacturing skillsets and career paths. They frequently take advantage of dual credit courses to earn college credit while they are still in high school to get a head start on their education. When students can take college courses in high school, they finish their degrees sooner and join the workforce before many of their peers. These students develop their skills earlier, prompting them to work in the field while attending school, which benefits our local manufacturers. The NTC region has many manufacturing companies, all of which need employees. NBT camps are helping to [attract tomorrow’s workforce to] fill employment gaps and keep our young people in this community.”

Building a Pipeline one Camper at a Time

One camper that arrived at an NTC camp with little to no prior exposure to manufacturing was Liliana Doak. Liliana attended NTC’s inaugural Girls Make it Real camp in June 2018, , while she was in high school. Three years later, she enrolled in NTC’s welding program.

Liliana commented that her summer manufacturing camp experience was the main reason she decided to pursue welding as a career. “I’ve learned a lot so far,” she said. “Welding has taught me perseverance – quite often the projects I’m working on in school don’t turn out perfectly the first time. I could quit, but I don’t want to be defeated by a simple project I’m working on. Graduating is more important to me than that.””

The continued support of NBT partners, donors, and sponsors make the summer manufacturing camp program possible. Case in point, NBT received a grant from an organization with deep ties to North Central Wisconsin and the manufacturing community to help fund the NBT camps being held at NTC in summer 2022. Thanks to the B.A. and Esther Greenheck Foundation for supporting projects that promote economic development and stimulate interest in careers and job skills to keep the Wausau area competitive.

Learn More About Hosting an NBT Summer Manufacturing Camp – Applications for 2023 camp grants are being accepted now through December 1, 2022.