AD // I’ve been thinking a lot about work and jobs and making a living lately. As you probably know by now, I’m currently a full-time blogger. But this was never a career I planned or wanted. This was something I fell into, conveniently. I love content creating and I’ve had some amazing opportunities from my job. But I’m never closing the door on a potential career change in the future.
Photo by ThisisEngineering RAEng on Unsplash
Working and jobs has been huge on everyone’s minds over the last 18 months, as the pandemic ravaged the world and destroyed people’s livelihoods as millions lost their jobs or had to manage on a furlough wage for much longer than any of us expected.
Particularly young people who have potentially had their GCSE’s, A Levels or University Degrees disrupted to no end – it’s been hard not only to find work for some people but also stick to any concrete plans they had for the future for a while.
There are so many different career paths out there and I think the expectations and perceptions of a career from a younger persons point of view has definitely changed over the years. I don’t know if I would be considered a “young person” anymore at the grand old age of 28 but I think I thought about careers differently at 17/18 for sure.
Manufacturing is one industry that doesn’t particularly get the credit it deserves in the eyes of young people. A study has shown that 52% of the young participants wouldn’t consider a career in manufacturing – eek.
When you think of manufacturing, you probably conjure up an image of some dusty warehouse or factory, not particularly high pay and endless, grueling hours that leave you covered in dirt and dust. Which for most places, isn’t the case at all anymore! Manufacturing has come incredibly far and is a vital to so many areas of our lives and interests, from medicine to sport to automobiles and countless others. We even have cobots now, which is a super cool element of manufacturing most of us wouldn’t have considered!
So today, I wanted to share 5 reasons that young people should consider a career in manufacturing.
Photo by ThisisEngineering RAEng on Unsplash
It allows you to built your career in a technology based environment
Manufacturing has evolved massively over the years and is far from your low-skill, back-breaking job in a dangerous and dirty working environment that a lot of older generations remember it to be, or assume it still is. As manufacturing, like everything, has turned more towards technology and automation, it now needs a number of high-skilled people to run, maintain and trouble-shoot equipment, for example, employees might think about what is kitting when it comes to inventory management techniques that adds efficiency and cost-effectiveness to your supply chain.
The demand for manufacturing jobs is always going to be high
The world will always been manufacturing in a vast number of sectors and industries. So the demand for these sort of jobs will always be high. That’s not to say that you should go into manufacturing just “because it’s easy to get into”. That’s not the case as you’ll still need to be a skilled and hard worker. But it’s definitely an industry that’s in more demand of people than others.
It’s not just about the blue-collar jobs
Although there’s obviously absolutely nothing wrong with a blue-collar job in the manufacturing industry, you’re highly mistaken if you think that’s ALL that’s involved! Manufacturing has a lot of different roles it needs filling in order to run safely and smoothly, which also includes design engineering, marketing, purchasing, sales, management and more!
It’s good wages for skilled workers
Another study has found that the average manufacturing job pays around $20,000 more per year than the average service job. So the wages within the manufacturing industry are nothing to turn your nose up at. As you improve your skills and craftsmanship, your annual pay will get a good boost with it.
There are many apprenticeship based training avenues to go down
As the skill involved in manufacturing gets higher, so does the need for more training in order to get into manufacturing as a career. If you’re a young person in school or college, then there are likely a lot of apprenticeship based courses to take which not only will give you all the skills you need but are also likely to land you a job at the end of it.
Of course there will be many more benefits of working in the manufacturing industry as a young person but here are just a few to get you started if you’re thinking about where to take your career. Even if you’re not a young person and you’re considering a career change, manufacturing might be a great place for you too!
