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Elevating Women and Girls in Manufacturing

Elevating Women and Girls in Manufacturing

by Dr. Tulinda Larsen, Executive Director Utah Advanced Materials and Manufacturing (UAMMI)

Manufacturing is not the first career choice for many women and girls, primarily due to a lack of knowledge about the industry and the opportunities within it. Utah Advanced Materials and Manufacturing (UAMMI) has been working with several organizations to introduce exciting new opportunities in manufacturing to women and girls in Utah.

Young Girls

Our programs start by introducing young girls to manufacturing at an early age such as girls welding camps, programs with the Utah Girl Scouts and the STEM Action Center, training programs with Utah State University 4H, and My Tech High.

Davis Technical College held a welding camp for high school girls interested in exploring the art and science of metalwork through the medium of welding. The camp, held last June had 15 young women attendees who worked with Welding Technology Instructors to learn different processes, metal tolerances, and design techniques to create beautiful and useful pieces. Lincoln Electric, an industry partner, provided gloves and head wraps for each camper. ORE Designs welcomed the young women to their facility and gave them a tour. Another welding camp will be offered in 2023. These experiences allowed the campers to hear directly from employers about the many possibilities the welding industry has for women.

The Utah Girl Scouts is working with the Utah STEM Action Center to offer a Girl Scout Badge in Additive Manufacturing. After completing a workshop with the STEM Action Center, Girl Scout troops will be able to check out a 3D printer to complete the requirements for the Additive Manufacturing Patch. The first workshop is scheduled to be held in February 2023.

Additionally, the Utah STEM Action Center developed an Additive Manufacturing Mobile Curriculum, which has been in use since September 2022. Schools may check out the Additive Manufacturing Curriculum and use it for two weeks. The curriculum is aligned with a variety of middle school and upper elementary standards. Five Utah schools used the curriculum last year, with an estimated 750 students impacted. We expect 1,500 students will be exposed to the curriculum by the end of the current school year.

One of the issues with teaching manufacturing is that educators often do not know where to start. USU’s 4H Extenstion created a series of 16 Innovation Stations, or portable maker kits, that focus on an area of manufacturing and contain all of the non-consumable supplies and equipment to hold clubs and camps with a manufacturing focus. So far responses to kit use have been phenomenal. The “Innovation Station” kits can be checked out by youth mentors and other educators for local use. These kits are “maker” kits in a box. They align with the curriculum that has been developed to increase interest and accessibility for underserved populations, especially girls.

The Utah State University 4H program offers two different youth leadership training programs to prepare youth as leaders in teaching materials for manufacturing at clubs and camps in the area. This resulted in eight camps with 221 participants. USU 4H also worked with afterschool educators to implement programming to expand outreach. The Engineer Everything curriculum is available for use free of charge, both within the 4-H community and for other educators.

My Tech High, a home-schooling company with more than 10,000 students in Utah, has developed three courses to introduce students as young as five years old in kindergarten to manufacturing.

Plus, UAMMI is working with STEM and CTE faculty to teach skills in the areas of unconscious bias, micro-messaging, and gamification principles. This program, developed by Angela Trego, Ph.D., uses engaged learning principles, which faculty can immediately use upon completion of the first workshop to increase the enrollment of women and underrepresented populations. Additionally, Dr. Trego is working to increase enrollment of non-traditional participants, especially girls in STEM courses and ultimately STEM careers through training high school counselors.

One participant explained her reaction to taking the training: “This training really opened up my mind to the influence I have as a school counselor regarding the paths students choose to take educationally and occupationally. I learned the positive power of encouragement for minorities. My perspective was broadened with STEM and its influence. The training was engaging, and I had so many ‘ah ha’ moments. It really got me thinking about my occupation and everyday ways I problem solve with students.”

Career Women

For women re-entering the workforce, UAMMI has partnered with Tech-Moms, a nonprofit organization that helps women re-enter the workforce and transition into technology careers and find more successful employment. Through the part-time training program offered at Weber State University, women are provided the opportunity to build the skills, knowledge, and a professional network needed to transition into or re-enter a career in tech, especially coding. Day-care is offered while the women are in training. In 2022 ran nine cohorts in Utah and trained 153 women. Additional cohorts are planned for 2023, plus two new programs are being introduced: Ready to Work and Tech-Moms in Color. One graduate exclaimed, “Being able to participate in a program like Tech Mom’s has helped me learn so much about the tech world and will undoubtedly lead me towards the career that I want and would not have been able to get otherwise.”

The Northern Utah Women’s Networking and Career Exploration Event held the “Spark Your Career” women’s networking event. It was an open-housestyle event where women looking for a manufacturing career learned more about our CNC, Composites, Automation, Welding, and Injection Molding programs. Representatives from Davis Tech student services and financial aid departments were available to show attendees how to complete the enrollment and financial aid processes. The women who attended received vital information about the options available to them in the manufacturing fields.

Career women need mentoring to help them succeed in manufacturing. UAMMI, Catalyst Campus, and the Women Tech Council offer opportunities for women in defense engineering to learn from successful women on how they navigated their careers in manufacturing.

Through these programs, we are tapping into new talent pools for manufacturing and increasing workforce diversity.

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