The year was 2013. Content creators were barely a thing. Blake Shelton and Adam Levine were still pranking each other on "The Voice" and the rest of us were still trying to figure out how to incorporate the power of social media into our branding strategies. That's when the Manufacturing Resource Center in Allentown, PA decided that the status quo of how we reached middle school kids as an industry had to change. This led to a now state-wide movement called "What's So Cool About Manufacturing."If the manufacturing industry had an Emmy's, this is would surely be it.

Join Ann Wyatt as she sits down with CEO, Richard Hobbs and Director of Workforce Initiatives, to learn how manufacturing companies are partnering with local area middle school students to create their own content showcasing the future of manufacturing jobs, networking opportunities between companies and the future workforce and bringing a flavor of an entire awards show all at once.

In This Episode:

-Richard explains to us what is so cool about manufacturing and why this program (tailored for middle school students) is making a larger impact by being unique (~timestamp 10:30)

-Richard shares how this program was designed to leverage these student's creativity and how that is shaping this sought after "future of work" skillset (~timestamp 15:43)

-Richard explains how What's So Cool is leveraging industry diversity by partnering the students with different niches of manufacturing industries year after year- exposing them to a wide variety of processes (~timestamp 25:14)

More About What's So Cool About Manufacturing:

Created by the Manufacturers Resource Center (MRC) in Allentown, PA in 2013, the What’s So Cool About Manufacturing® contests draw entries from teams across Pennsylvania. The teams of students and teacher coaches receive camera equipment, software, and professional guidance as they learn to script, record, and edit their video stories. The contest’s objective is to change students’ perceptions about manufacturing careers.