Students

Manufacturing covers such a wide array of industries that it’s difficult for people not to find it interesting! Manufacturing spans some of the most interesting high-tech industries, such as aerospace, food technology, machine monitoring, and pharmaceuticals. Not everyone gets the opportunity to tell friends about their day-job, but when you’re working on the latest developments, people want to listen!

Contrary to what’s widely believed, the days of workers crammed into darkened sweat-boxes, handling dangerous chemicals and machines that would gladly rip off a limb are now, mostly, resigned to history! Things have come a long way. Robots, machine monitoring, the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), and automation are all employed to ensure that the workplace is a smart and safe one.

Manufacturing is all about producing things which go on to help people in their everyday lives. There’s very little that’s more satisfying than seeing the fruits of your labor and being able to say “I made that.” Workers in manufacturing are responsible for bringing products into stores, developing innovative new technologies and maybe even producing set pieces for blockbuster movies. If you work in a bank, you shuffled some numbers today – and those numbers got shuffled by someone else. Manufacturing produces tangible products.

There’s more to manufacturing than fabrication and welding, although if this is your area of interest it is certainly worth pursuing as skilled roles of this nature are in huge demand. Automation has taken a lot of the dangerous, repetitive work away from the factory floor, and thus creating the need for a variety of very specialised roles.

As the baby boomers retire, there are opportunities in leadership, as well as opportunities in sales, business development, marketing, product research and development, and HR. Manufacturing can provide stability and life-long career paths.

Manufacturing has always driven innovation. 3D printing, the IIoT, drones, and robotics all fall under this sector. As manufacturers, we adopt new technologies before they become widely available on the consumer market, so we get the opportunity to use and perfect the development of these cutting-edge technologies. It’s a great reason to get up for work in the morning!

Manufacturing makes a significant contribution to home and global economies, as well as putting food on the table at a local level. With a substantial contribution to GDP, manufacturing helps raise the standard of living for workers and consumers, while lubricating the economy. We’re also producing products that make lives easier, so not only is the contribution financial, but we’re adding to the quality of life for millions of consumers. That’s certainly something to be proud of.

There’s a huge skills gap in manufacturing, caused in part by the retirement of a generation of skilled workers. This creates a huge opportunity for training, and for those hoping to develop life-long skills. The world of work has become transient as our economies have shifted to a service-based focus. The “job for life” in these industries has become a thing of the past. However manufacturing is here to stay and needs skilled workers so opportunities for roles across a range of skill sets are very abundant.

With the massive demand for skilled people, there’s a huge array of career progression opportunities in manufacturing. The image of repetitive production lines and grubby overalls is not the new norm. Of course, those roles are still available for those who want them, but technology has stepped in, leaving wider possibilities for skilled workers. It’s not all shop-floor working; there are opportunities in prototyping, product development, as well as the many office and marketing roles.

Manufacturing offers competitive pay and benefit packages. There’s a higher percentage of workers in manufacturing with retirement plans, in comparison with other private sector industries. And there’s often a good range of health care benefits available, and on a more generous basis than in other industries.

Pay, on average, is higher for equivalent roles in other industries.

As manufacturing adapts to new technologies, so do the roles. There’s a distinct push for people with STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) skills, as machines require programming and new software needs development.

Companies are struggling to recruit people with these skills; partly because it’s not widely understood that these skills are required. But for highly qualified, technical specialists, manufacturing offers excellent potential for a great career.