Kasside Wilson, an 18-year-old graduate of Cleveland Heights High School, has her eyes on a career in prosthetics engineering.

“My grandmother, she [had] a prosthetic, so that gave me the idea,” she said. “I want to do something hands-on, and I kind of want to be in the sports field a little bit, so I could probably help athletes.”

Wilson is majoring in biomedical engineering at the University of Akron in the fall, but first, she spent this summer diving into the manufacturing world. Along with 25 other Cleveland-area students, she attended the six-week Summer Manufacturing Academy hosted by MAGNET, the Manufacturing Advocacy and Growth Network. 

From its locations throughout Northeast Ohio, MAGNET aims to grow the local manufacturing field. The organization offers consulting services for existing manufacturers and trains young people for jobs in the industry through a range of youth programs. MAGNET hosted the Summer Manufacturing Academy at its new Cleveland headquarters in the former Margaret Ireland Elementary School in Hough. 

Getting paid to learn

The academy doesn’t cost students a dime. In fact, students got paid by the hour to participate through a partnership with Youth Opportunities Unlimited (Y.O.U.), a local organization that connects students from lower-income families to summer career-building opportunities.

“I don’t want to simplify it, but one of the only differences between young people who are in less-resourced communities and those who are more fully resourced is opportunity,” said Craig Dorn, the CEO of Y.O.U. “These kids are as smart as anybody and as talented as anybody, but they don’t have a network to lean on.”

Kayshawn Boone, a 17-year-old student at John Adams College & Career Academy, said he’s motivated to build his career for his family. He’s interested in engineering and entrepreneurship.

“I come from a hardworking family, so it kind of runs in the blood,” he said. “I want to create generational wealth. That’s something that’s not in my family, so I want to be the person creating it.”

Creating a career pipeline

Throughout the program, students toured manufacturing facilities around Cleveland and worked on projects related to design, engineering and robotics. At the end of the course, they took a test to earn an industry-recognized certificate in manufacturing literacy. 

“I want to try and figure out what I want to do when I grow up instead of just forcing myself into a job position that I’m not so happy in,” said Jonathan Nguyen, a 17-year-old student at Padua Franciscan High School. “So this was really helpful to try to figure out if I wanted to be in manufacturing.”

Jennie Becker, the manufacturing experience designer at MAGNET who leads the academy, taught high school science for 10 years before taking on her new role. She’s been with MAGNET for two years, and she said her work now allows her to reach more young people than she could as a teacher. Beyond the Summer Manufacturing Academy, MAGNET also hosts field trips and classes for younger students and offers an internship and mentorship program. 

All those programs exist to meet the different needs of children as they grow closer to entering the workforce, Becker said.

“We kind of think of it like a funnel,” she said. “A lot of the kids I see aren’t about to graduate, they’re younger. I want to keep up with them, so that when they are ready to work, we can help them get a job in manufacturing.”

Filling for a labor shortage

All of MAGNET’s youth programs aim to foster interest in manufacturing as the industry faces a labor shortage. The sector lost about 1.4 million jobs nationwide during the pandemic. It’s bounced back a bit, but still, 622,000 manufacturing jobs remain unfilled. 

The organization hopes to help fill the local share of those open jobs by promoting manufacturing to more diverse young people. 

“This program is means-tested, people have to meet income eligibility requirements in order to get into it,” said Lissy Rand, the executive director of workforce partnerships at MAGNET. “We’re getting the kids whose families are not in a position to pay for enriching kinds of summer experiences, and at the same time, those kids are likely to be from the populations that have not really benefited from manufacturing prosperity.”