Educators & Schools
What’s So Cool About Manufacturing?®
Give Students an Inside Look at a Local Company
What careers are available inside a manufacturing company? What skills do the people who work there use every day? And what does it really take to design, make, manage, market, and deliver products? What’s So Cool About Manufacturing?® gives middle school students the chance to find out for themselves. Student teams partner with a local manufacturer, visit the company, interview employees, learn about the business and its careers, and create a short video sharing what they discovered.
Along the way, students use skills they are already developing in school, including communication, teamwork, research, creativity, technology, and problem-solving, while seeing how those skills are used in real workplaces.
South Central Pennsylvania Contest
MANTEC connects participating schools with local manufacturers and supports teams throughout the experience. Our regional competition includes two contests:
East
Dauphin, Lancaster, Lebanon, and York counties
West
Adams, Cumberland, and Franklin counties
How It Works
Each participating school is paired with a local manufacturing company. Student teams:
- Connect with their assigned manufacturer
- Visit the company to learn about its people, products, and operations
- Interview employees and explore different career paths
- Research and plan the story they want to tell
- Film and edit a short video about their manufacturer
- Submit the completed video for the regional competition
MANTEC provides participating schools with program information, deadlines, connections to manufacturers, and support throughout the process.
Why Participate?
Students get much more than a look inside a manufacturing company.
The experience gives them opportunities to:
- Discover careers they may not have known existed
- See how interests and strengths can connect to different jobs and college majors
- Meet professionals and ask questions about their education and career paths
- Practice interviewing, writing, research, teamwork, and communication
- Build video-production and digital storytelling skills
- Experience how different roles work together within one business
- Build confidence interacting with professionals outside the classroom
What Teachers Should Expect
Each school has a teacher or advisor who serves as the primary contact and helps guide the student team through the experience. Teachers help students stay on track, coordinate with the assigned manufacturer, support company visits and video development, and meet program deadlines. MANTEC helps make the industry connection and provides guidance and information throughout the contest.
See What Students Have Created
Want to see the finished product? Explore videos from South Central Pennsylvania schools and manufacturers, see contest winners, and learn more about What’s So Cool About Manufacturing?® across Pennsylvania.