South Haven students to tour local manufacturing facilities

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factory-safe874642

Around 150 eighth grade students from South Haven’s Baseline Middle School will go on a tour of local manufacturing facilities next week. South Haven Area Chamber of Commerce Assistant Director Olivia Thompson tells us the chamber and the school organized the field trip to show the students there are a wide variety of careers to pursue right in their hometown.

“Once the graduate and are looking for jobs, we want them to be able to use South Haven as a base, that they can stick around and enjoy their hometown because most people don’t realize the types of industry that we have here in South Haven,” Thompson said.

Thompson says local manufacturers offer more than just production line work.

“We want to show them that there are engineering opportunities, IT, sales,  research and development. We just wanted to get them out and see different jobs that are available in our community.”

There will be four stops on Tuesday’s tour. They are US Tarp, Vibracoustic, American Twisting, and FoodTools. Thompson says organizers picked sites that produce different sorts of materials. The plan is to make the manufacturing tours a yearly event. Eighth grade students are also being introduced to opportunities at the Van Buren Tech Center and programming at Lake Michigan College so they can learn the skills to do the jobs available locally.