WILLIAMSPORT, Pa. — Sparks are flying inside Penn College of Technology's Metal Trades Center in Williamsport. The center has been the home base since Wednesday for a manufacturing competition known as Project MFG's welding championship.
"Last August, we had about 300 students that signed up for our national welding league to participate and then went through three rounds in their school to—they were qualifying rounds, and of those, we took the top 18," said Amy Moyer, marketing manager at Project MFG.
Project MFG's mission is to support and get students involved in the trades.
"We have competitions throughout the country that show top talent and gets industry and educators involved to bring the next generation of trade professionals," said Moyer.
18 high school and trade students from across the country have come to Penn College to compete against one another for a $10,000 grand prize.
"The last two days, the competition has been building a space shuttle with rocket boosters, and so you'll see different stages of completion as we go through the competition together," said Moyer.
"Print reading, weld symbols, everything that Project MFG is trying to push, we're pushing the exact same thing, so I don't know if it's a case of we need to prepare extra, we should be doing our job in the very beginning to ensure that our students are at the level when they come to the end of the program," said Clay Wilkie, an instructor at the College of Southern Idaho.
This is the first year Penn College is holding the welding championship to get more people interested and involved in welding.
"For us to be able to link up together and actually host this nationwide competition here at Penn College is just a phenomenal way to expose more young people to the field of welding as well as more people to Penn College," said Brad Webb, Dean of Engineering Technologies.
To learn more about competing in MFG's next competition, click here.