Sugar River Tech students learn about New Hampshire manufacturing jobs

CLAREMONT — Hillary Halleck distributed a series of questions for Sugar River Technical Center students to ask Mikros Technologies employees that were intended to help guide the students as they think about what they want to do after high school.

“We want them to ask themselves, ‘What do you like on a day-to-day basis and how can you apply that to your work?’ ” Halleck, Mikros’ director of human resources, said at a Manufacturing Day event at the tech center last Thursday. “The more experience you have with adults and their careers, the better off you will be in picking your own.”

Manufacturing Day, which was Friday across the country, is promoted by The Manufacturing Institute in Washington D.C.

Its primary goal is to introduce students to the variety of opportunities in manufacturing and its broad range of jobs.

About 70 students attended the two-hour event, circulating in groups around the second floor of the tech center to hear Mikros employees talk about their jobs and how they approach them.

Mikros, founded in 1991, has two facilities on River Road in Claremont and employs 60. Its main product line is described as “microchannel cold plates for cooling high powered electronics.”

Serena Fletcher, a machinist at Mikros, told students that manufacturing was not an interest of hers when she was younger and in fact, she was thinking about zoology. But a machining job at Sturm, Ruger & Co., which has a production facility in Newport, changed that.

Fletcher said “making something out of nothing” and working with engineers at Mikros is very rewarding for her.

Job growth

The event also emphasized the growth of manufacturing jobs in the state.

Tony Fernandez is the center director and president of the Concord-based New Hampshire Manufacturing Extension Partnership, or NHMEP, which works with the state’s manufacturers looking to fill jobs.

“It is exploding,” Fernandez said about manufacturing growth, adding he expected about 500 state manufacturers to attend the NHMEP manufacturing summit the next day, Oct. 4. “Manufacturing across the country as well as New Hampshire is growing exponentially.”

In New Hampshire, manufacturers account for about 10% of the total output in the state and employ slightly more than 10% of the state’s workforce or more than 67,000 jobs, according to a 2022 report from the New Hampshire Department of Employment Security. When broken down by county, 26% of Sullivan County employees were in manufacturing and 10.3% in Grafton County.

What has changed over the years, Fernandez said, is the innovation that is taking place and the new technology in a state which supports that environment.

“People like Mikros are innovative companies. You have a lot of companies here (in N.H.) that can innovate on their own.”

Mikros product technician Nancy Ruest, a Stevens High School graduate, emphasized the importance of innovation in her conversations with the students.

“Manufacturing is about change, development and making things better so the technology to do that is always new,” Ruest said.

Change afoot

Mikros has a new owner. The company announced on Thursday that it was acquired by Jabil Inc. of St. Petersburg, Fla., on Oct. 1.

Jabil is a “global leader in design, manufacturing, and supply chain solutions,” Mikros said in a news release.

Terms of the sale were not disclosed.

“This acquisition will provide Jabil with critical capabilities for helping our customers manage the intense thermal requirements of their current and next-generation products while keeping sustainability and cost considerations top of mind,” Jabil said.

Mikros CEO Drew Matter said the acquisition will not change the Claremont operations and its goals for continued growth.

“We intend to maintain and grow our facilities in Claremont,” Matter said in an email. “This will mean not only keeping all current employees and compensation packages, but also growing our advanced manufacturing and engineering staff here in the area. We intend to scale our operations both in the Upper Valley and beyond; the result should be more jobs for high-integrity skilled workers in Claremont.”

Recruiting young people

Fernandez said 15% of the state’s manufacturing workforce is 65 or older and looking to retire so training the next generation to fill those jobs is essential.

“Young people today better understand a lot of the new technology better than older works and efforts to marry that technology with young people is working,” he said.

Roy VanGemert Jr. is the workforce manager for NHMEP and helps to connect schools to manufacturers and also organizes field trips.

VanGemert, who teaches an introduction to manufacturing at Kearsarge Regional High School, said in the last three to five years, manufacturers have begun sounding the alarm even louder than before on the need for young workers.

“Manufacturers are starting to get together with schools more than they used to,” VanGemert said.

While the concept is not new, VanGemert said it is being done on a much larger scale than previously.

Last year, NHMEP conducted high school tours of manufacturers for about 850 students for the month of October, which is Manufacturing Month. Just three days into the month this year, they had already booked 800 students for tours.

At the tech center on Thursday, sophomores Matt Harford and Owen Chapman said they learned everything from the importance of math to working in a team environment to meet company goals.

“I came here because maybe it is something I want to do later in life and wanted to see if it is a good avenue to go down,” Harford said.

Patrick O’Grady can be reached at pogclmt@gmail.com.