New Youth Books Address the Manufacturing Awareness Gap

Estimated reading time: 2 minutes

Mike Nager is a recognized Industry 4.0 thought leader who works to get more STEM learning environments into high schools and colleges. He’s an award-winning author who has written three books on manufacturing for the young audience. Mike is addressing the reality that waiting to create awareness and interest in electronics manufacturing until future workers are young adults is too little, too late.

His book, The Smart Student’s Guide to Smart Manufacturing is geared to high school students, teachers, and guidance counselors. Soon after its publication, he released a book of terms and definitions for young professionals working in the industry. That was followed by a rhyming picture book, All About Smart Manufacturing for 6- to 8-year-olds that touches on the importance of studying STEM. It showcases cute robots and engaged humans working together to everyone’s best advantage. “People and robots make a great team,” he writes, “Working together is a wonderful dream.”

My conversation with Mike left me impressed and hopeful. This type of broad and unconventional thinking will spread awareness of manufacturing careers at the earliest stages of learning and development. This type of real early intervention, coupled with other programs actively being developed in middle school, high school, and higher education, will (eventually) help us fill the ever-widening workforce gap we face in electronics manufacturing.

Marcy LaRont: Mike, tell me about yourself and your background.

Mike Nager: I've always worked in the industrial B2B workplace, usually for manufacturers, and specifically with industrial controls: devices, apparatus, and sometimes machines that go into every type of manufacturing operation regardless of industry.

As a sales and marketing professional, I was on the customer-facing side of the business. Over the course of 25 years, I saw many things being made, which inspired me to write books that share a vision for those with little to no experience in manufacturing of what's happening inside all types of manufacturing facilities.

LaRont: Where are you currently working?

Nager: For the past 10 years, I've been working for Festo Didactic. It’s German-owned. I work in the U.S. with North American responsibility for a product we refer to as a “Learning Factory.” Our purpose is to help educators—whether at the university or high school level—put in the right hardware, lab equipment, certifications, and curriculum so students can get hands-on experience in engineering technician fields. We work with many educational institutions over the course of a week. They often will have an idea about a key industry in which they are interested, such as semiconductor manufacturing. How can they put a lab or Learning Factory into their school so that an industrial engineering technician or student can get hands-on experience with the exact equipment they will face in that industry? These holistic labs help reduce on-the-job training required by the employer and serve to get students and their parents excited. When they go into a lab and see working robots, CNC machines, or a whole miniature factory inside the classroom, it makes a much bigger impression.

Continue reading this article in the January 2025 issue of PCB007 Magazine.