Manufacturing Day in Windsor-Essex returns after a three-year absence. | So Good News

More than 700 area middle school students today toured 18 Windsor-Essex manufacturing facilities across the region to learn about careers in the sector.

Manufacturing Day, or MFG Day, is held annually on the first Friday of October and aims to showcase the future and realities of modern manufacturing workplaces.

“People are eager for new employees and this is a really interesting career option for new students,” said Workforce WindsorEssex apprentice Kal Fakhreddin. “Devices and technology have come a long way; It shows these students that this is an accessible job.”

Fakhreddin continued, “It is no longer dangerous. Not the heavy lifting. You don’t have to be a 6’5″ man to do this job. I’ve seen women all over the company and it’s amazing.”

Workforce WindsorEssex and Invest WindsorEssex have partnered with area school boards to participate in a North American-wide initiative aimed at sharing technology and career opportunities in advanced manufacturing with high school students.

Windsor-Essex was the first community in Canada to participate in MFG Day in 2013, with six companies hosting 150 students.

Officials noted that manufacturing was the region’s largest sector, employing 36,536 workers locally in 2021.

“Workforce WindsorEssex is proud to be a part of bringing Manufacturing Day back to our region this year,” said Project and Research Manager, Tashlyn Teskey of Workforce WindsorEssex said. “After three years, It is good to see interest from local companies in students and their businesses with the aim of increasing interest in careers in the sector. The best way to gauge student interest is to actually go into the facility and see what their future holds.”

According to Statistics Canada’s August 2022 Labor Force Survey, Manufacturing employs an estimated 33,500 people in the region, or about 20.3 percent of the region’s 165,300 employers.

Teskey said, “Talent development is a key component in building a strong workforce and business. Windsor-Essex has always been known as a modern manufacturing powerhouse. Encouraging collaboration between academia and industry through events like Manufacturing Day helps address the skilled workforce shortage and ensure the continued prosperity of the region’s largest industry.”