The next Castle Country Business Expansion and Retention (BEAR) general board meeting is slated to take place on April 8 and the presentation will focus on all things manufacturing.
This presentation is a group effort between USU Eastern’s Gary Straquadine, Dustless Technologies’ Spencer Loveless and Merit 3D’s Blake Merrell. It was stated that advanced manufacturing has reached its readying point to grow in Carbon County with the help of technology advancements and a nationwide goal of re-patriating manufacturing from offshore locations.
Southeast Utah is seeing a lot of interest in advanced manufacturing due to great infrastructure from the highways, airport, fiber internet and more. Data that was gathered from the Department of Workforce Services (DWS) show that Carbon County is in position to shift from a finite mineral extraction and energy production economy to advanced manufacturing.
Such occupation was rated with three stars out of five from the DWS. Currently, the percentage of employment in manufacturing for the county is less than the state average, though the gain is much better than the state average when comparing June 2019 to June of 2020. It was stated that Carbon County has experienced a 14% increase of manufacturing jobs within that same calendar period.
It is not a large secret that Wasatch Front companies have been looking to relocate to rural Utah, where taxes and production space is of lower cost. However, this will only be accomplished through an existing well-trained workforce.
However, the Wasatch Front does not have the only businesses that can benefit. Local companies that are wishing to expand or diversify may benefit from the manufacturing revolution as well. For USU Eastern, the role is to develop a highly-competent workforce with a goal to establish an innovative certificate program to prepare graduates for a number of careers.
These careers are manufacturing engineering technologists, production/post-production specialists, production/operators and much more. The university is ready to partner with industry leaders in the design, as well as the implementation, of the advanced manufacturing curriculum.
This presentation is slated to begin at 8 a.m. and those that wish to attend may do so via this Zoom link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85262939769.