Manufacturing Day 2023 Recap / City of Mesquite Economic Development

The Mesquite Regional Business Retention and Expansion (BRE) Partnership hosted it's fourth annual Manufacturing Day for the manufacturing and Mesquite ISD career and technical education communities on Wednesday, October 4.

Manufacturing Day, a program of the National Association of Manufacturers, showcases and celebrates modern manufacturing careers and provides inspirational experiences to America’s manufacturing leaders and students. Over the next decade, 4 million manufacturing jobs will need to be filled in the U.S. BRE’s Manufacturing Day aims to do their part to lessen this workforce gap in the Mesquite area.

This year’s event consisted of a job fair from 9:30a.m. to 11:30a.m. at Vanguard High School and plant tours from 12:30p.m. to 1:30p.m. The job fair saw approximately 400 students and included industrial companies and support organizations such as Rainstamp, Westlake, Canadian Solar, Plastipak, FedEx Ground, CarrollCLEAN, Dallas College, the University of Texas at Dallas, Workforce Solutions Greater Dallas, the Dallas County Manufacturers Association, the Federation for Advanced Manufacturing Education (FAME) Dallas Chapter, and Columbia College.

Jared Martinez, Recruiting Coordinator for Rainstamp, talking with MISD CTE students at the job fair

Federation for Advanced Manufacturing Education (FAME) participant talking with MISD CTE students at the job fair

Meagan Ladd, Talent Acquisition Coordinator for FedEx Ground, talking with MISD CTE students at the job fair

Two-hundred and sixty-nine MISD CTE students toured one of eight participating companies: Rainstamp, Strukmyer, H&K International, Gemini, FedEx, Orora Visual, Harmon and J&R Manufacturing.

MISD CTE students touring Orora Visual

MISD CTE students touring Rainstamp

MISD CTE students touring Harmon

MISD CTE students touring FedEx Ground

MISD CTE students touring Gemini

Ryan Higgins, President of J&R Manufacturing, touring MISD CTE students

MISD CTE students touring H&K International

On Tuesday, October 3, Dallas County Commissioners Court approved a resolution highlighting the contributions of Mesquite and Garland for their economic development efforts to expand manufacturing business and prepare and develop the emerging manufacturing workforce. View the LinkedIn post about it here.

Resolution

Top row: Dallas County Commissioners Court Dr. Theresa Daniel, Andy Sommerman, Judge Clay Lewis Jenkins, John Wiley Price, and Dr. Elba Garcia. Below row: City of Mesquite Economic Development Coordinator Alberto Rivera, Mesquite Chamber of Commerce President Alexander Helgar, City of Mesquite Mayor Daniel Alemán Jr., Dean of Vanguard High School Clint Elsasser, President at Garland Chamber of Commerce Karina Olivares, and City of Mesquite Manager of Economic Development Lexie Woodward

Manufacturing Day was presented by the Mesquite Regional BRE Partnership, which consists of the City of Mesquite, Mesquite ISD, Dallas College, Workforce Solutions Greater Dallas, the Mesquite Chamber of Commerce, Forney ISD and the University of Texas at Dallas.

Regional manufacturing data

Hiring Landscape for Manufacturing provided by Dallas College

Manufacturing Industry Sector Report provided by Dallas College

Manufacturing Day Report provided by University of Texas at Dallas