Anchor Bay High School students tour Stahls’ Manufacturing and Engineering Center on Manufacturing Day.
On Friday October 6th, GroupeSTAHL participated in its first Manufacturing Day event. The goal of the day is to introduce the next generation of our Macomb County workforce to the interesting and rewarding jobs in the manufacturing sector. Anchor Bay High School students visited our Manufacturing and Engineering Center in Chesterfield, and South Lake High School students visited our St. Clair Shores Production location. Both schools were very grateful to be able to participate at locations “in their backyard,” and getting to learn more about jobs outside of the automotive sector.
Marilyn Elliott, Vice President of HR for GroupeSTAHL, became aware of the opportunity to join in this event by attending a Macomb Economic Development Corp consortium of employers in the greater Macomb County area. It seems that many manufacturers struggle with finding good unskilled, semi-skilled and skilled manufacturing help. Manufacturing Day allows local high school co-op programs, with students in their senior year of high school, to learn more about local employment opportunities, see manufacturing in action, and meet people who make things. That’s us!
I didn’t realize that Macomb County’s celebration of Manufacturing Day is one of the largest in the country, with over 58 high schools and 2,000 students participating in 2017. The students were thrilled to learn that Stahls’ produces CAD-CUT heat transfer vinyl, heat presses and all the letters, numbers and logos they’ve been wearing all their lives. Many didn’t realize we had been manufacturing since 1932 and that we had so many fascinating products and services. They really appreciated learning how we help businesses meet all their personalization needs, as well as our licensing affiliations with the NHL, MLB, NFL and NBA. Approximately 30-35 students (and counselors/teachers) traveled to each of our manufacturing locations, where they experienced hands-on demonstrations and learned more about the career opportunities they can find at GroupeSTAHL.
The tote bags and goodies were also a big hit and the counselors/teachers who came along were greatly impressed. We look forward to participating again next year and meeting more potential future team members. Thank you to everyone at GroupeSTAHL who helped to make the day an overwhelming success, including Wendy Taylor, Scott Vallee, Danielle Petroskey, Maureen Massey, Stacey Osborne, Alice Toarmino and Dan Robinson for the prep work. And another shout out to all the tour guides the day of the event.
Thank you for participating in Manufacturing Day. We can’t wait until next year.
Students learn about CAD-CUT materials and how they are used around the world.
South Lake High School visiting our digital production services department in St. Clair Shores.