SME Education Foundation Blog

Industry 4.0 ushered in new technologies, new products and new ways of working. It's imperative that high schools keep pace with the skills they teach students to prepare them for the manufacturing workforce. SME PRIME schools give manufacturing students a head start, as they inspire them to use and test the skills they learn in the classroom during regular class projects as well as occasional special assignments.

Manufacturers, communities, educators, students and parents can all benefit from participating in Manufacturing Day: Last year, more than 80% of students said they became more convinced that manufacturing provides interesting and rewarding careers after attending these events.

SME PRIME students at Hawthorne High School near Los Angeles, CA recently graduated from South Bay Workforce Investment Board’s (SBWIB) Aero-Flex Pre-Apprenticeship program. The 23 students from the schools manufacturing and engineering program will leave high school better prepared to directly enter the workforce upon graduation.

Automation and artificial intelligence (AI) continue to transform the nature of manufacturing and engineering work. While low-skill, lower-wage jobs could be phased out, newer technologies will create new high-skill, higher-wage jobs.

This is the second in a series of two blogs focused on manufacturing misperceptions, Industry 4.0 and the next generation of manufacturers.

The SME Education Foundation awarded 222 scholarships totaling nearly $550,000 to graduating high school seniors, undergraduates and graduate students currently or planning to attend colleges, universities across the United States and Canada.