Manufacturing tours set

Students from Jay and Blackford counties will participate in Manufacturing Day on Friday.
Organized by the Jay-Black Manufacturing Council, 160 students from Jay County and Blackford high schools will tour a variety of manufacturing facilities in Jay and Blackford counties.
Students from both schools will split into groups and rotate through tours of seven manufacturing facilities.
In Jay County, students will tour FCC, POET Biorefining, Pennville Custom Cabinets and TLS By Design. In Blackford County they will tour Mayco, Petoskey Plastics and New-Indy Containerboard.
Jay School Corporation director of teacher effectiveness Jeremy Gulley explained that the day can give students a better understanding of what modern manufacturing looks like.
“The best way to (show them) is to let them see it for themselves,” Gulley said.
Jay County High School manufacturing teacher Doug Tipton explained that the day can also help dispel some preconceived notions that students may have about the manufacturing sector.
“When people think about industry, sometimes they’re stuck in a 1950s mindset, picturing a dark and dingy factory floor. That’s not the case now,” Tipton said.
John Jay Center for Learning executive director Rusty Inman echoed Tipton’s sentiment.
“This day will prove that the 21st century manufacturing plant isn’t the same place their grandparents worked,” Inman said.
John Jay was also part of organizing the day’s events, and students will stop there for lunch.

The Manufacturing Day tours highlight a broader push by Jay School Corporation and John Jay Center to encourage students and residents to consider a career in manufacturing.
The manufacturing program at JCHS has about 80 students enrolled in four different levels of manufacturing classes, up from about 50 when it started three years ago. It’s part of an ongoing effort to expand manufacturing education as John Jay is working to add a new manufacturing maintenance training facility in the basement at it’s 101 S. Meridian St. building
Gulley explained that coordination between the Jay School Corporation and John Jay can mean better wages for young Jay County residents and a strong workforce to benefit Jay County’s manufacturers.
“Jay County schools, employers, and the John Jay Center are pulling the rope in the same direction,” Gulley said. “We want to make a clear path for kids through high school to the John Jay Center and then employment.”