In honor of Manufacturing Day, Mack is taking a moment to reflect on tomorrow’s manufacturers, engineers and leaders by looking back at the Company’s 2017 internship program. Join us for an inside look at how students are making a difference at Mack and launching careers.
Recently Mack retiree Marty Oakland stopped by to give current employees a fly fishing casting lesson. Besides an impressive 36-year tenure with us, today Marty a fishing guide and proprietor of Arlington Vermont’s Quill Gordon Bed & Breakfast along with his wife, Valerie. So on a sunny Tuesday afternoon, today’s Mack team learned how to shoot the line from a Mack legend, catching some grass and even our camera man in the process!
Despite its best efforts, Stella, the blizzard of 2017, couldn’t keep the Mack team from working hard for our customers. Get out of the cold and get an inside look at what was happening at Mack during the big Nor’easter. And don’t forget, you can get a look at the Vermont weather everyday by checking out the Mack Mountain Cam at https://www.mack.com/mack-mountain-cam/.
The Mack team is at it again celebrating the holidays with its annual tree lighting and of course a new carol for 2016 – “Have a Holly Jolly Mackmas!”
From Oct. 24-28, 2016, Mack hosted its biennial Made in Vermont Days at its Arlington, Vt., Headquarters – bringing local high school juniors and seniors into the Company’s manufacturing space to learn about manufacturing and engineering careers through tours, workshops and presentations.
The program is designed to reach students looking to go to a four year school, as well as certification and technical programs, and those who may wish to enter the workforce directly. This year Mack welcomed four schools – Arlington Memorial High School, Southwest Vermont Career Development Center, Long Trail and Burr & Burton Academy, as well as local home school students. In all, nearly 50 students, educators and parents participated.
Students toured the Company’s HQ through the lens of one particular product manufactured there that incorporates virtually Mack’s entire vertical integration of services. Following the tour students participated in a competitive workshop introducing the theory behind manufacturing flow before learning about careers available to them with the Company’s Director of Human Resources, hearing business insights from the HQ Plant Manager and an open Q&A with these key staff members. Students also were given the opportunity to sign-up for more in-depth workshops to be held at a later date in the following disciplines: Injection Molding, Machining, Sheet Metal Fabrication, Manufacturing and Engineering.
By hosting the event in October, Mack is able to leverage the power and name recognition of Manufacturing Day and Manufacturing Month, creating additional pull through while increasing access to supportive resources. Additionally, Mack benefited from its relationship with the Vermont Manufacturing Extension Center (VMEC), whose team trained some of the Company’s up and coming employees to conduct the manufacturing flow workshop featured during the event, which proved fun and informative for students, putting some context behind what they had seen on the manufacturing floor.
Mack’s Made in Vermont Days represent just one facet of the Company’s outreach efforts to cultivate the next generation of talent needed to drive manufacturing in the Northeastern United States. With a goal of building a sustainable workforce by encouraging the next generation of engineers, technicians and professionals, Mack regularly brings in middle and high school students, sends engineers into the classroom and has even had programs for children as young as kindergarten. In addition to Made in Vermont Days, Mack’s high point in this effort is an internship program that has hosted close to 100 interns from schools like UVM, WPI, RPI and RIT. The Company is now starting to recognize the fruits of its labor with a record number of interns – six – joining Mack as full-time employees in 2016.
