Letter to the Editor by Karyn Winters is Director of the Genesee County Business Education Alliance and Angela Grouse is Director of Education to Employment with the Livingston County Area Chamber of Commerce. Both served as Co-Chair of this year’s event:
Thanks to the dedicated volunteers, vendors, and students from across Genesee, Livingston, Orleans, and Wyoming Counties, the 6th annual GLOW With Your Hands: Manufacturing was once again another successful demonstration of hands-on career exploration for local students.
This workforce development program is designed to educate the next generation of employees in the skilled trades, advanced manufacturing, agriculture, and food production workforces.
The 6th annual event on September 24 welcomed 1,100 students and chaperones from 30 school districts across the GLOW region who connected with 200 representatives from more than 70 agencies, trades groups and businesses in hands-on activities and demonstrations that provided an exploration into careers and pathways into them.
Launched in 2019 with 800 students, GLOW With Your Hands Manufacturing has grown into the premier workforce development program in the region and continues to grow. With the addition of GLOW With Your Hands: Healthcare, a hands-on medical careers program held annually in March, more than 5,000 students have participated in GLOW With Your Hands events since 2019.
With the mounting student debt, it is essential that we educate students on cost-effective pathways into careers.
GLOW With Your Hands introduces students to careers that can be entered immediately after high school, as well as economical ways to pursue careers that require post-secondary training and education.
We continue to witness a significant influx of private sector investment across the region, fostering growth and innovation that is bringing in-demand, economically rewarding careers right to our backyards. This surge not only creates jobs but also enhances local economies, encourages workforce development, and attracts talent, ensuring that our communities thrive in an increasingly competitive workforce landscape.
We have built a workforce development ecosystem that equips students with the necessary skills that connect them to desirable careers resulting from company relocation and expansion projects. That ecosystem is on display annually at GLOW With Your Hands Manufacturing and Healthcare events.
Thanks to the hard work and dedication of our committee members, volunteers, and vendors, students interacted with local company representatives learning about careers and industries they may have never been aware of previously.
Our vendors are subject matter experts with on-the-job experience, and they were well-equipped and excited to answer students’ questions.
One of our participants highlighted the passion displayed by our company representatives “It is inspiring to see the number of businesses and representatives who are passionate about sharing their professional experience with us, a lot of students do not know what career they want to pursue, and this helped me get an idea of what companies are a part of the community.”
This is what GLOW With Your Hands is all about; there are so many great careers and companies available, and students deserve to learn what is possible right here in their own backyards as they move onto the next chapter of their lives.
The awareness and education that results from GLOW With Your Hands, has spurred an influx of increased enrollment in local apprenticeship and BOCES programs, where students can take their skillset to the next level, participating in earn-as-you-learn type programming.
We take pride in being the premier workforce development event in the region. Thank you to our platinum sponsors, National Grid, LandPro Equipment, and Rochester Davis-Fetch, and the dozens of other companies, unions, and agencies whose significant investment generated a successful event.
The third annual GLOW With Your Hands: Healthcare is just 5 months away from coming back to Genesee Community College where we welcome hundreds of GLOW region students to explore the opportunities available in the local healthcare industry.
Stay tuned for more details to come!
