On Wednesday, December 4th, the Portage Economic Development Corporation held their annual meeting at Woodland Park. Aside from discussing the many advancements the city of Portage has made over the past year, the meeting centered on a very important topic.
The topic discussed focused on providing new and interesting employment opportunities for youths who would otherwise seek employment outside of Portage. Jim Fitzer, the Executive Director of the Portage Economic Development Corporation, introduced the topic of manufacturing career opportunities.
“We want to show students that there is a career opportunity in manufacturing right here in Portage,” Jim Fitzer said. “This reinforces what the school system is doing with the externship program.”
Students of Portage High School recently had the chance to attend a Manufacturing Day. This occasion let the students learn about the manufacturing opportunities in Portage first hand.
“Our goal for 2014 will be to continue to do what we’re doing,” said Diane Thalman, an Economic Director at NIPSCO. “We want to help the Manufacturing Day grow.”
Craig Lamb, the Executive Director of Ivy Tech in Lafayette, gave a thorough presentation on Advancing Manufacturing. He shared an array of interesting facts that apply to our region.
For instance, manufacturing makes up 11.6% of the jobs in our region. Also, those people in the above percentage account for about 22% of earnings in the region. This furthered the point that these manufacturing jobs are great opportunities.
“We want to build a world class workforce to help manufacturing grow in your region,” said Craig Lamb. “This is a way to invest in the future.”
Click here to see more photos from the meeting.