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Event showcases local manufacturing jobs

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These MFL MarMac high schoolers were among a group of 200 students from area schools who visited M’s Machine and Manufacturing Co., in Monona, last week for Manufacturing Day. (Photos by Audrey Posten)

The goal, said M’s Machine Vice President Candace Drahn, is to showcase manufacturing jobs and highlight the importance of manufacturing to the community.

Hunter Kugel checks out one of the parts created at M’s Machine and Manufacturing Co. during the tour of the facility.

By Audrey Posten, North Iowa Times

Last week, for the fourth year in a row, M’s Machine and Manufacturing Co. welcomed local students to its facility in Monona for a special Manufacturing Day tour.

Manufacturing Day has been celebrated nationally since 2012, on the first Friday of October, which is Manufacturing Month.

The goal, said M’s Machine Vice President Candace Drahn, is to showcase manufacturing jobs and highlight the importance of manufacturing to the community.

“It’s a huge part of the Iowa economy,” she explained, adding that advanced manufacturing is actually the largest industry in the state, even outpacing agriculture.

But there’s a shortage of workers with the qualified skills to meet the demand of jobs in the industry. And according to Drahn, that shortage is expected to grow. By 2022, 3.5 million manufacturing jobs will be available, yet 2 million of them are expected to go unfilled.

Through Manufacturing Day events, M’s Machine and other manufacturers hope to entice students—that future workforce—to consider a manufacturing career. 

Around 200 students from area schools, including 50 from MFL MarMac, attended last week’s event. In addition to visiting M’s Machine, students also toured Mobile Track Solutions, in Elkader. 

M’s Machine mills and turns metal and plastic parts for leading agricultural, automotive, industrial and medical manufacturers, while Mobile Track creates large equipment like scrapers, disks and roller blades.

“We make the machine parts that go into [Mobile Track’s] equipment,” Drahn said, so Manufacturing Day gives students a glimpse into different facets of the industry.

Students learn that available jobs range from accounting and purchasing to working on a production line. Many of those careers, Drahn noted, only require a two-year degree.

“Community colleges, schools and companies like ours are doing a good job of working together,” to help students learn about and prepare for those opportunities, she said. 

The outreach is working. Drahn said M’s Machine recently received an application from a local student who was part of the first group of kids to tour the facility for Manufacturing Day.

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