Wide-ranging student interests meet wide-ranging opportunities at RIME
Kinston Public Service employees explain their jobs to students during the Regional Industry and Manufacturing Expo held Wednesday. More than 500 students from Lenoir, Wayne, Greene and Jones counties had the opportunity to connect with more than 30 potential employers from the region.
Renamed, rebranded and expanded, this week’s Regional Industry and Manufacturing Expo still held true to its original purpose – to acquaint high school students with career opportunities close to home.
More than 500 students from Lenoir, Wayne, Greene and Jones counties turned out on Wednesday to connect with representatives from more than 30 businesses, manufacturing facilities and public agencies at the NC Global TransPark, at the Lenoir Community College Aeronautics and Advanced Manufacturing Center and through tours of facilities like Crown Equipment, Mountain Air Cargo and flyExclusive.
The event returned this year after a three-year absence due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Known formerly as Manufacturing Day, a mega field trip designed to acquaint students with modern manufacturing and the technology that drives it, the reimagined version – known as RIME – continues to spotlight manufacturing while also including a broad range of other potential employers, from agricultural concerns to law enforcement to construction.
“This is to help students become aware of opportunities they have in their local area. They don’t have to travel outside of Lenoir County or their region to find a good job,” said Brittany Harrison, LCPS’s career development coordinator and an organizer of RIME.
North Lenoir High School sustainable agriculture teacher Kimberly Chapman accompanied 17 students on a morning tour of flyExclusive, the fast-growing charter jet operation headquartered at the GTP, before leading them around vendor displays at the LCC center and the GTP terminal.
“They learned that you don’t have to be a pilot to be part of an industry like that,” she said of the tour. “You might be an engineer or a painter or a designer. Even an art student could find an interest in that.”
Chapman’s students and all the students who attended RIME are involved in their school district’s Career and Technical Education program, which provides students with a pathway to certification in a variety of trades, as well as a leg up on jobs that require a two-year or four-year degree. It’s instruction aligned with students’ interest, according to Chapman.
“They are absolutely thinking about careers,” she said. “I teach an entire unit about careers related to whatever class I’m teaching. They choose a career and do a project on it.” In her classes, Chapman said, she has potential engineers, pilots, mechanics, law officers and farmers as part of a great span of choices.
The job opportunities locally match young people’s interests, according to Mark Pope, senior vice president of the GTP Economic Development Region, a primary sponsor of RIME.
“This is a great opportunity for students to engage with manufacturers and other employers, with colleges and universities, and really learn what’s out there, where they can stay at home,” Pope said. “We have opportunities that pay good wages, but we have to let these young people know what’s out there.”
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