Bremen High School’s Dean of Students Mr. Otis Lane and Science Teacher Mr. Willus Vivian took a group of male upperclassmen to participate in National Manufacturing Day on Friday, October 7. “Mr. Vivian and I wanted to give this group of young men an opportunity to access different types of careers in the trades and manufacturing work that they would not likely be exposed to otherwise,” said Lane.
National Manufacturing Day is a growing movement of manufacturers dedicated to overcoming negative public opinion about manufacturing jobs and the issue of a shortage of skills laborers. In today’s manufacturing environment there are highly trained, well-paid employees who work on state-of-the-art equipment. This day allows companies to open their doors and show exactly what they do, as well as address misconceptions about what they do not do.
The day started with the Bremen students gathering at Bloom High School with over a dozen other local schools for opening day activities. Around ten o’clock the Bremen group headed to Orland Park to take a tour of Panduit. According to their web site, Panduit is over 60 years old and is a world-wide company that employs over five thousand people throughout the world. They develop “innovative physical infrastructure solutions” that meet the rapidly changing needs of their clients from hardware to software.
“I like opening doors for students that they didn’t even know existed. We live in an area where manufacturing is going on all around us. To have the opportunity to show the students a world-wide state of the art operation like Panduit was priceless!” stated Mr. Vivian. "I really liked the tour; the assembly lines at Panduit were making things I didn’t even know existed. The robotics were really cool! ” said junior Andrew Vontayes.
For more information on National Manufacturing Day or Bremen’s male mentoring program, Male Call, contact Mr. Otis Lane at Olane@bhsd228.com.
