For students, spring break often represents a time to kick back and relax with friends and family before the end of the school year as the busy summer months approach. But not all seniors use their time to unwind; some students keep going full speed ahead.
At Manor Tool, we’re doing our part to decrease the manufacturing skills gap by supporting these motivated high school students and helping them to enhance their knowledge outside of the classroom.
Educating Tomorrow’s Workforce
Each year, Manor Tool offers an internship program over spring break to honor our commitment to the Chicago manufacturing industry. We work with local high schools and trade associations in an effort to increase interest and knowledge about our industry and the many career opportunities it offers.
Our internship program has two main goals. First, we aim to give interested students the chance to learn more about manufacturing by allowing them to be a part of our team for a week. Second, we intend to create an interest in manufacturing to help build and grow tomorrow’s workforce.
We received numerous impressive resumes of students interested in joining our internship program. This year, two students stood out among the highly qualified candidates: Salvatore (Sal) Labarbera and Noah Guadalupe. These students were chosen based on their history of mechanical and engineering based classes and extracurricular activities. From looking at their resumes, we could tell they would be a great fit with the Manor Tool team.
Their week consisted of learning every facet of what Manor Tool does, starting with a tour of our facilities to learn how to operate a punch press. Over the next few days, Sal and Noah learned about all the departments and how each one impacts Manor Tool, including: Engineering and Design, Sales, Customer Service, Accounts Payable, and Ownership. We gave them a glimpse into the many departments and team members it takes to offer high quality stamping, machining, designing, and engineering services.
Looking Forward
As the need for qualified engineering and machining employees greatly increases, our team at Manor Tool hopes to help decrease the manufacturing skills gap by expanding our role to include more education and opportunities to prospective engineering students.
We enjoyed our week getting to know Sal and Noah, and we look forward to welcoming more interested students to our internship program in the future.