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An Educator’s Guide to Manufacturing Opportunities in Charlotte, North Carolina

A few decades ago, you might have found a typical high school student in the Charlotte area lying in a field on the family farm, thinking about owning it one day. If you happened upon a more academically ambitious youngster, she or he might have been thinking about going to Davidson or UNC, maybe planning to be a physician or a politician one day.

Today, you will still find youngsters like them, but you will find fewer of them. In their place, more and more young North Caroliners are thinking about becoming engineers, programmers, factory workers and general business people, for a very simple reason . . .

The entire Charlotte region is exploding with new opportunities in manufacturing

Today, let’s take a look at opportunities for your students if you live or teach in Charlotte and the surrounding areas.

Major Companies Doing Business in the Area

According to the Charlotte Regional Business Alliance, there are more than 3,000 manufacturers in the Charlotte region, with growth in manufacturing increasing since 2013 at twice the national average. Growth in automotive and automobile-related manufacturing industries is increasing rapidly too.

Here is some information you should know, from a whitepaper from the Alliance on manufacturing growth.

Manufacturing companies that are hiring now include ATI Specialty Materials, Charlotte Pipe and Foundry, Commonscope, Daimler, GKN Driveline, RSI Home Products, Schaeffler, Siemens Energy, Tyson Foods, and WIX Filtration.

And manufacturing companies that are headquartered in the area include AMSO, Coca-Cola Bottling, Corning, Curtis-Wright, Domtar, Electrolux, Husqvarna, Ingersoll Rand, Jeld-Wen, and Sealed Air.

Plus, Honeywell, Stanley Black & Decker and Tristone have been expanding operations in the area since 2018 and are hiring.

What Jobs Are these Companies Hiring For?

Here are the professions the Charlotte Regional Business Alliance lists:

Assemblers and fabricators
First-line production supervisors and operating workers
Grinding, crushing, polishing, mixing, and blending workers
Inspectors, testers, sorters, samplers, and weighers
Machinists
production workers
Molding machine workers
Packaging and filling machine tenders and workers
Textile, apparel, and furnishing workers
Welding, soldering and brazing workers
Woodworking machine operators and tenders

Recent Business News in Charlotte

Here are two stories that have been making the news just this week in the Charlotte Business Journal:

Sealed Air Corp. had a very profitable third quarter
Solar Winds, a Texas-based IT software manufacturer, has acquired SentryOne in Charlotte

Colleges that Teach Tech and STEM Studies in the Charlotte Area

Where can students pursue STEM studies at the college level in the area? Here’s a partial list. (Please note that some of the schools we list award degrees, while others do not.)

Cabarrus College of Health Sciences
Carolinas College of Health Sciences
Central Piedmont Community College
Cleveland Community College
Clinton Junior College
Connecticut School of Broadcasting
Davidson College
ECPI University
Gaston Community College
ITT Technical Institute Charlotte
Johnson & Wales University
Kings College
Livingstone College
Mitchell Community College
Northeastern University Charlotte
Pfeiffer University
Rowan-Cabarrus Community College
South Piedmont Community College
Strayer University
University of North Carolina
University of Phoenix
University of South Carolina Lancaster
Wake Forest University School of Business
Wingate University
Winthrop University
York Technical College

And Charlotte Is Fun Too

It’s no longer an area that young people dream of leaving when they complete their educations. They want to stick around and enjoy hiking and boating, a growing number of excellent restaurants, theater, and music of all kinds, as well as sports that range from NASCAR to just about every kind of competitive sport you can think of.

If you teach your students well, they will remain in the area and contribute to its growth. Not because they have to, but because they will want to.

The Charlotte Area is Hot and Growing Fast

We Invite You to Explore Your Students’ College & Career Options with Us. . .

Students who participate in the National Career & College Pathway Study will gain new insights about making educational decisions that align with their interests, passions, and aptitudes. Participants will receive information on college and career opportunities that match their interests.

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