Agilent brings in over 200 Delaware students to talk modern manufacturing

Original Source: Delaware Online

Hundreds of Delaware students gathered to learn about manufacturing careers right in their backyard, while thousands of new jobs are expected in the sector over the next few years.

He faced a bus full of students with sleep still in their eyes.

"Just go in with an open mind," Lou Mingione recalled telling his Red Clay high schoolers, before their phone screens even showed 8 a.m. The career and technology education associate helped coordinate pick-ups from all six district high schools, before the bus made its way west of Wilmington.

His bus was the first of some 200 students set to visit Agilent Technologies — a global manufacturing company specializing in analytical and clinical laboratory tech — on Friday, Oct. 6. For the first time in Delaware, the company set out to use "Manufacturing Day" to expose hundreds of college and high school students alike to opportunities in modern manufacturing.

"There are a lot of misconceptions about what manufacturing looks like in the U.S. today," said Adam Blackford, associate vice president and Delaware sites general manager. "I think there's perception that it's maybe unsafe, maybe dirty and maybe that there's not a lot of excitement, or career trajectory in manufacturing. That couldn't be more wrong."

Blackford spoke from a small conference room tucked into Agilent's Wilmington facility off Centerville Road, ahead of student arrivals. His company employs more than 900 across its sites in Wilmington and Newport, some 18,000 worldwide — but the employee of over 15 years hopes to cultivate more interest among youth headed for the workforce.

Student groups from Brandywine, Red Clay Consolidated, Delaware State University Early College School, Odyssey Charter and William Penn High School came in waves, alongside collegiate students form Delaware State University, Delaware Technical Community College and the University of Delaware.

The U.S. could add roughly 250,000 manufacturing jobs in the next two years alone, according to a recent report from Goldman Sachs, so "this is definitely bigger than Agilent," Blackford said. Attending students toured the facility, watched tech demonstrations, asked questions and more.

"The thought is that we have more students exposed, especially students that don't necessarily have the means to know about these opportunities. Get them out of the classroom, into the actual site where people that look like them are doing things that they may want to do in the future," Mingione said, thinking of his Red Clay scholars.

"We can't manufacture that inside the classroom."