High schools are starting to schedule annual Career Days. DJ Products encourages business owners and managers to call your local high school guidance department and volunteer to make a presentation. There’s been a lot of press over the past year about dwindling work forces in the material handling, manufacturing, fulfillment and warehousing industries. The need to educate young people about the career potential in our industries has been repeatedly stressed by industry leaders at national association conferences. We need to work now to encourage America’s youth to pursue careers that will benefit and ensure the future of material handling and the U.S. industries so vital to American commerce. High school Career Days give local business leaders a perfect opportunity to talk to America’s future workforce and encourage teens to seek careers in material handling, manufacturing, fulfillment and warehousing.
Partnering with high schools through Career Day, internships and technical training programs are among the nationwide efforts being made to draw future workers to material handling and other industrial careers. A unique partnership in Rock Hill, South Carolina could serve as a model for similar programs across the country. In sponsorship with the Material Handling Industry of America (MHIA) and the Material Handling Education Foundation Inc. (MHEFI), Rock Hill Schools are set to open the Don Frazier Supply Chain Training Center at the end of April. A new addition to its Applied Technology Center, Rock Hill’s new entry-level pilot program will allow high school students to learn by doing in a state-of-the-art, fully equipped, 4,000 square foot warehouse and distribution center, according to a MHIA press release.
Named for industry pioneer and program supporter Don Frazier, founder of Frazier Industrial Co. headquartered in New Jersey, the Don Frazier Material Handling Technical Training Program will provide hands-on learning in material handling and supply chain jobs to high school students in grades 9 through 12. Numerous local and national industry leaders and suppliers contributed to the start up of the Rock Hill program. Modeled after the prestigious Lehigh Career and Technical Institute program at Lehigh University near Allentown, Pennsylvania, it is hoped that the pilot program will serve as a model for the development of similar programs at high school technical centers across the country.