Over the last two decades, the U.S. manufacturing economy has evolved from a labor-intensive production line to an advanced technology-driven environment. To support this shift, the NAM and The Manufacturing Institute have long advocated for strong and sustainable internship and mentorship programs that better align programs of study with industry competency and skills requirements.

Increasing technical graduates requires encouraging students to enter and then stay in technical fields.  A distressing 40% of students entering science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) curricula leave their programs in the first year. We believe that an important part of encouraging students to enter, and stay in, STEM curricula is the ability for them to experience exciting professional opportunities in these challenging fields as they pursue their educations. There are early indications that internships in the first two years of higher education can have a significant, positive impact on students’ retention in STEM degree programs.

The National Association of Manufacturers and The Manufacturing Institute would like to invite members to rise to a challenge embraced by the President’s Jobs Council -- doubling engineering internships in 2012.  This initiative, led by NAM members GE, Intel and DuPont, will take a significant step toward fortifying a pipeline of 10,000 more engineering-focused graduates each year, an increase which is necessary to sustain American innovation and productivity.

On August 31, a broad coalition of companies that have pledged to double their engineering internships will be announced and we encourage our member companies to sign this pledge and support the pipeline of future STEM graduates. We believe that this effort will both give more students a view of the tremendous opportunities to innovate and succeed in these fields and give manufacturers an opportunity to find future highly trained employees.

Please click here to pledge to double your company’s STEM internships in 2012. The deadline for pledging is August 30^th at 3:00 p.m.  We look forward to hearing from you about your pledges and your commitment to U.S. manufacturing. If you have any questions, please contact the NAM’s Christine Scullion at Cscullion@nam.org. 

Thank you,