Quinebaug Valley Community College welcomed more than 90 students from 10 area high schools on Oct. 28 for the 7th annual Manufacture Your Future event, held annually as part of Advanced Manufacturing Month.

Students learned about QVCC’s credit, certificate, and degree programs, and met advanced manufacturing staff, instructors and graduates. They also toured the 10,000-square-foot facility and networked with businesses from Eastern Connecticut to explore future opportunities. During workshops, the students learned about robotics, 3D laser scanning and optics, lean and continuous improvement concepts, and programmable logic controllers.

More than half of the top 100 companies in Connecticut are manufacturers, employing over 168,000 people, according to the National Center for Next Generation Manufacturing. As a result, CBIA ranks Connecticut second in the nation for high-tech employment and defense contracts and accounts for almost $25 billion in total manufacturing output.

Manufacture Your Future is a hands-on introduction to advanced manufacturing for high school students. To learn more about the manufacturing programs available at QVCC, visit: https://qvcc.edu/manufacturing.

The application for new students entering in fall 2023 is now open at ctstate.edu/apply. Locations include Naugatuck Valley (Waterbury and Danbury), Quinebaug Valley (Danielson and Willimantic) and Three Rivers (Norwich). Find out more at www.ctstate.edu/becoming.