Manor Tool’s Internship Program Helps Close the Manufacturing Skills Gap
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Back Row: Kevin Segebarth (General Manager) and Dmitry Balabanov (Corporate Maintenance Manager) Front Row: Tom Simeone (President), Fred Torres (student- Senior), Mario Perez (student – Junior), Lucy Lopez (Quality Assurance Manager), Dan Kiraly (Tool Room Manager)
For high school students on spring break, it’s a time for rest, relaxation and new experiences. For the 3rd year in a row, Manor Tool & Manufacturing welcomed a group of local Chicago high school students to our facilities to provide hands-on, real-world experience in the manufacturing sector.
By supporting these motivated high school students and helping them to enhance their knowledge outside of the classroom, we’re doing our part to decrease the manufacturing skills. We’ve even been able to offer students with career opportunities upon graduation.
Educating Tomorrow’s Workforce
Manor Tool offers an annual internship program over spring break to honor our commitment to growth in the Chicago manufacturing industry. We work with local high schools and trade associations in an effort to increase interest and knowledge about our industry and the many career opportunities it offers.
Our internship program has two main goals. First, we aim to give interested students the chance to learn more about manufacturing by allowing them to be a part of our team for a week. Second, we intend to create an interest in manufacturing to help build and grow tomorrow’s workforce.
We received numerous impressive resumes of students interested in joining our internship program. This year, two students from Leyden High School stood out among the highly qualified candidates: Fred Torres, a senior, and Mario Perez, a junior. These students were chosen based on their history of mechanical and engineering based classes and extracurricular activities. From looking at their resumes, we could tell they would be a great fit with the Manor Tool team.
Their week consisted of learning every facet of what Manor Tool does, starting with a tour of our facilities to learn how a punch press operates. Over the next few days, Fred and Mario learned about all the departments and how each one impacts Manor Tool, including: Engineering and Design, Sales, Customer Service, Accounts Payable, and Ownership. We gave them a glimpse into the many departments and team members it takes to offer high-quality stamping, machining, designing, and engineering services.
Looking Forward
As the need for qualified engineering and machining employees greatly increases, our team at Manor Tool hopes to help decrease the manufacturing skills gap by expanding our role to include more education and opportunities to prospective engineering students.
We enjoyed our week getting to know Fred and Mario, and we look forward to welcoming more interested students to our internship program in the future.