Do you enjoy creating or designing things?
Are you good at visualizing concepts and ideas?
Would you like to work in a factory?
Do you have good manual dexterity?
Do you enjoy learning about and using new technology?

If you answered yes to two or more of these questions, perhaps you would be a good candidate for a job in the manufacturing career cluster. Imagine yourself in one of these jobs:

• Factory production worker
• Millwright
• Instrument control technician
• Electrical equipment installer
• Business machine repairer
• Quality control technician
• Instrument maker
• Sheet metal worker

Cluster Definition

Jobs in the manufacturing career cluster involve planning, managing, and performing the processing of materials into intermediate or final products and related professional and technical support activities, such as production planning and control, maintenance, and manufacturing/process engineering.

Career Pathways in Manufacturing

A career pathway is an area of concentration within a career cluster. Each pathway contains a group of careers requiring similar academic and technical skills as well as similar industry certifications or postsecondary education. The manufacturing career cluster has four pathways: precision metal production, precision technology processes, electromechanical installation and maintenance; and production, design, operations, and maintenance.

Precision Metal Production
This field includes a variety of metalworking jobs such as foundry workers, sheet metal workers, tool and die makers, and machine operators.

Precision Technology Processes
In this pathway, computers and computer-aided systems are used to design, create, and assemble detailed, high-quality products. Jobs include optical goods workers, medical appliance workers, quality control technicians, pattern and model makers, and instrument makers.

Electromechanical Installation and Maintenance
This field includes all jobs involved with installing, maintaining, and repairing devices that use electricity, from cellular phones to nuclear power generators. Jobs include biomedical equipment technician, laser systems technician, computer maintenance technician, computer installer, business machine repairer, industrial electronic installer, meter installer or repairer, utility manager, power generating and reactor plant operators, and instrument control technicians.

Production Design, Operations, and Maintenance
This pathway includes all of the tasks required to set up and run a manufacturing plant, from industrial and manufacturing engineers, to process control technicians, from automated manufacturing technicians to plastics production workers, and from boilermakers to clothing production workers.

Click here for a visual representation of the manufacturing career cluster.

Print and Internet Resources

These Print and Internet Resources offer references for career cluster exploration, including trade, professional, and business associations, government departments and agencies, labor unions, and cluster-specific career Web sites.

Manufacturing Print and Internet Resources

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