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Updates

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The What’s So Cool About Manufacturing? student video contests have adopted a new digital platform at WhatsSoCool.org that is easy to use on mobile devices and is able to host the growing number of contests across Pennsylvania.

Created by the Manufacturers Resource Center (MRC) in Allentown, PA, the annual contests excite students to explore cool manufacturing careers and produce profiles of companies throughout Pennsylvania. The teams of students and teacher coaches receive camera equipment, software, and professional guidance as they learn to script, record, and edit their video stories. Judges in each contest bestow a variety of awards, and fans in each region vote online for a Viewers Choice Award. The contests are held to change students’ perceptions about manufacturing careers.

First held in 2013, the flagship Lehigh Valley area contest has become so popular that its format has been adopted in 40 of Pennsylvania’s 67 counties – a combined area that represents more than 9 million of the state’s 12.7 million residents. The contest format also has been adopted by groups in 11 additional states.

The new platform includes a dedicated section for teams to download resources and access contest information. It also provides a digital hub for the MRC’s Dream It. Do It. PA career awareness effort.

The Dream It. Do It. PA initiative provides information about advanced manufacturing careers for students, educators, and adult family members. It also manages the PA Dream Team – a group of young industry professionals who make classroom presentations to encourage students to explore manufacturing careers. The Dream It. Do It. brand was created by The Manufacturing Institute in Washington, D.C., and the MRC owns exclusive rights for its use in Pennsylvania.

Funds to develop the What’s So Cool About Manufacturing? contest and the Dream It. Do It. PA initiative were provided in 2013 by a grant from the Pennsylvania Department of Community & Economic Development’s “Discovered in PA, Developed in PA” program for an MRC project called Lehigh Valley Skill-Up.

About the Manufacturers Resource Center
The Manufacturers Resource Center (MRC) is dedicated to creating jobs and economic opportunity in eastern Pennsylvania’s Berks, Carbon, Lehigh, Northampton, and Schuylkill counties. MRC is a nonprofit organization partially funded by the U.S. Department of Commerce’s NIST-MEP program, as well as the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania’s Department of Community and Economic Development.
 
News Story Contact
Karen Buck, Manufacturers Resource Center
Allentown, PA, 610.628.4626
 

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