A newly established scholarship fund for students in underrepresented communities is a crucial component of the SME Education Foundation’s diversity, equity and inclusion strategy, designed to fully integrate diversity and equity opportunities in every program, effort and initiative undertaken by the foundation over the next five years.
Valerie Freeman, a manufacturing and robotics pathway teacher at Park High School, will join the SME Education Foundation Board of Directors in 2021. Park High School in Racine Unified School District joined the SME PRIME school network in 2017. Freeman was instrumental in utilizing SME PRIME to install new curriculum, training to teach students important skills like how to program a robotic arm and remodeling the classroom for a more effective learning environment.
The Arconic Foundation donated $25,000 to the SME Education Foundation’s COVID-19 campaign. Donations to the campaign will ensure that online learning provided by Tooling U-SME becomes available to thousands of high school students in 12 manufacturing disciplines, including additive manufacturing, mechatronics and smart manufacturing.
Industry 4.0 ushered in new technologies, new products and new ways of working. It's imperative that high schools keep pace with the skills they teach students to prepare them for the manufacturing workforce. SME PRIME schools give manufacturing students a head start, as they inspire them to use and test the skills they learn in the classroom during regular class projects as well as occasional special assignments.
The SME Education Foundation awarded 222 scholarships totaling nearly $550,000 to graduating high school seniors, undergraduates and graduate students currently or planning to attend colleges, universities across the United States and Canada.
Manufacturing is not dirty. Manufacturing is high-tech. Manufacturing pays wells and leads to prosperous careers. Manufacturing is thriving in the United States. How can we change misperceptions about manufacturing? We can counter each statement with facts.
SME Education Foundation Blog Posts SME Education Foundation Blog Read blog posts on news, updates and viewpoints from the SME Education Foundation, our Student Summit event series, SME PRIME
Perception issues cause plentiful, high-paying jobs — including manufacturing jobs — that require shorter, less-expensive training, to remain unfilled. Programs like SME PRIME (Partnership Response In Manufacturing Education) aim to address skilled trade shortages by offering tailored curriculum and hands-on training with modern equipment.
The number of SME PRIME high schools is set to double after the SME Education Foundation received a $6 million donation from the State of Michigan’s approved Education Budget. The legislation was crafted with bipartisan support from the Michigan Legislature, including Foundation board member and state representative Joe Tate (D-Detroit).
SME, with its more than 86 years of experience and expertise in events, publications, membership, and training and development, is, together with the SME Education Foundation, committed to promoting manufacturing technology, developing a skilled workforce and attracting future generations to advance manufacturing...and we’d like to help with your story.