Teaching the Teachers Manufacturing Careers at Wagstaff

Teaching the Teachers workshops are designed to introduce local middle and high school educators and counselors to the vast number of businesses and opportunities in our community that await their students after high school. With the gained knowledge from these workshops, teachers learn their place on the Career Pathway and are better equipped to guide and prepare their students through extracurricular knowledge and awareness.

 This workshop is hosted by Wagstaff, a local manufacturer that provides machinery, technology, and service to enable aluminum producers to transform molten aluminum into solid shapes using direct chill casting. Advanced manufacturing offers many careers that allow employees to engage in amazing opportunities to thrive. With roles such as engineering, machining, welding, and production operations, manufacturing offers employees careers using advanced technology with high earning potential.

Over the past two decades, many students and parents have lost touch with opportunities in manufacturing due to a lack of exposure. What many don’t realize is that:

• Advanced manufacturing offers high paying jobs for individuals with skilled training such as machinists and welders who are in very high demand.
• In two years or less of college (via community college or trade school), a student can enter the workforce with little or no debt and start out at a going rate of about $22+/hour plus benefits (before overtime and annual bonuses). This is based on the Spokane market.
• Engineers are in high demand in manufacturing.
• Production jobs integrate high tech with process engineering, requiring specialized knowledge, skill, and technical expertise. These are skilled positions that create interesting work for a lifetime.
• Employees tend to advance quickly, gain additional certifications, and earn higher wages shortly after entering their careers.