Over a 95% grade promotion or graduation rate is just part of what sets WIRE-Net's youth Manufacturing Career Exploration and Career Readiness program apart from other programs. Wire-Net's high school youth program, School-to-Career, ended the year with a 90% retention rate and over a 75% participation rate in all after-school experiential learning activities. Four out of six graduates have decided to pursue secondary education and have been accepted to Cleveland State University, Toledo University, Baldwin Wallace College, and Cuyahoga Community College.

School-to-Career's 2009-2010 program year met several objectives. Understanding that youth are becoming less and less interested in getting into manufacturing and related careers had enabled the program to focus on increasing the awareness of manufacturing careers to ninth grade students at Max Hayes Technical High School. In addition to their In-Demand Manufacturing Career Project, every freshman student in the program participated on a plant tour at a progressive manufacturing company, like Astro Manufacturing & Design or SGS Tool Company. The plant tours and other career awareness activities may have been the reason 71% of freshmen chose a high school track in a manufacturing trade.

It was critical that the students preparing for college in the next one to two years had an opportunity to expand their knowledge of programs that focused on up-and-coming manufacturing and related careers. By collaborating with other well-known programs, we were able to join Cleveland Scholarship Program on a tour of University of Akron. Our student participants were excited about the degreed programs offered in Akron and through Lorain County Community College's Wind Turbine Associate Degree program during a visit there in March.

This year, employer participation doubled due to both student and employer value-added activities: which included, job shadows, mock interviews, a generational gap roundtable discussion, and trade-specific plant tours. With MAGNET's support, WIRE-Net was able to have eight students participate in machining, welding, and IT job shadow experiences.

The overall goal of exposing manufacturing careers to the 27 student participants was to change their perception of manufacturing and the career opportunities that can be meaningful and rewarding to them in their future. Jackie Williams said it best when he said, "What surprised me the most was how precise they are and how clean the shop was!" The program's success was due to the efforts of our participants, parents, employers, staff, and partners!

Thank You!