The lights come up, the hour is over, and you’ve learned quite a bit from a “how-to” video tutorial in your Manufacturing 101 class. And while classrooms are integral to the education process, many of us may remember that an actual hands-on learning experience gave us an on-the-job and real-life view of business that we just couldn’t get inside of a classroom.
Manufacturing Day
Friday, October 5 is National Manufacturing Day—a day set aside as a celebration of modern manufacturing meant to inspire a future generation of manufacturers. You might say that at Genesis Plastics Welding we celebrate that day every day. Even though we aren’t in a classroom ourselves every day, we haven’t forgotten how important it is to offer the next generation of innovators and potential medical device workers hands-on internship experiences that expand their learning realm and inspire a future career in the manufacturing industry.
“There are so many unknowns in the world for today’s students considering career path options. Hands-on internships can be very enlightening for most students and such a great experience and added value for the employer as well,” said Genesis Plastics Welding President and CEO Tom Ryder.
A hands-on learning experience can provide many student opportunities through an internship including:
- Identification of career interests and skill sets
- Development of workplace skills and good work habits
- Benefit from workplace mentorship and definitions of employer expectations
- Provide a basis for future classes tied to identified career goals
As an Indiana employer in the manufacturing sector, the Genesis Plastics Welding team knows the importance of collaborating with educators and supplementing traditional learning to truly invest in the development of our future workforce with guided hands-on learning. Recent summer intern Ruth Oliva Rodrigues shared, “There is an openness, and you really get to experience everything. They really take you into the fold here.” Rodrigues wasn’t alone. Other recent summer interns said of their experience at Genesis Plastics Welding:
“I enjoyed doing a variety of things, getting to work with multiple machines, and the opportunity to mentor with more than just one engineer within the department.”
“Getting to work on a variety of projects and seeing how the projects I worked on last year are progressing. It’s been an eye opener to see how long the design and development cycle to production can be. I also find the insights into end uses of devices fascinating.”
“Getting a 3-in-1 experience by interning within three areas of Genesis Plastics Welding: Maintenance, quality and engineering. There really is an openness here and you get to try so many things.”
The medical device industry is on a growth trajectory that will require accelerated design, advanced manufacturing technologies and cutting-edge process approaches in order to meet the fast-changing industry marketplace needs. By sharing our tested and valued manufacturing knowledge while gaining insight from our interns, we hope to create an open dialogue—not just on manufacturing day but every day—for innovative collaboration.
Curious about interning with our engineering team? Shoot us an email.