GE Appliances Brings Manufacturing to Local Classrooms with First Virtual Field Trip of Appliance Park

• More than a total of 150 middle- and high-schools classes from
  Greater Louisville participate in a first-of-its-kind virtual tour of
  Appliance Park.
• The event is designed to spark interest in manufacturing and help
  students prepare to build careers in this $11 billion Louisville-area
  industry
• Other Manufacturing Month activities are planned with Junior
  Achievement to expose both middle- and high-school students to the
  career opportunities in manufacturing.

LOUISVILLE, Ky.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–“You must be 18 to enter” doesn’t apply to middle- and high-school
students who will get an insider’s look at Appliance Park manufacturing
operations on October 7. GE Appliances, a Haier company (GEA), has
engineered a way to expose students to the high-tech, fast-paced
environment of one of the region’s largest manufacturing sites and the
types of career opportunities that await them, without breaking GE
Appliances’ long-standing workplace safety guidelines and without 4,500
students leaving the classroom.

October 7, Manufacturing Day, in the United States and Canada, is
designed to celebrate modern manufacturing, to educate and inspire the
next generation of manufacturers. It is an opportunity for manufacturers
to open their doors to show what manufacturing looks like today – with
the goal of dispelling misconceptions that have discouraged students—and
their parents—from considering careers in this dynamic field.

Today, students from 150 classrooms that include Jefferson County Public
School (JCPS) middle schools, Doss High School’s new manufacturing
technology program—which GE Appliances helped launch with funding for
Amatrol manufacturing training equipment—and the Mt. Washington Middle
School will participate in a virtual field trip which showcases 3D
printing in action in one of the state’s largest rapid prototyping
centers, the production facility for the industry’s most innovative
bottom freezer refrigerators and a state-of-the-art training
facility—all located at the 900-acre Appliance Park in southeast
Louisville.

“Seeing is believing,” said Bill Good, VP of Manufacturing for GE
Appliances. “To get students excited about manufacturing, they need to
see how we manufacture today. With the virtual field trip, we can expose
more students than ever before to how manufacturing is more than just a
job, it is a career where team members collaborate to solve problems,
skills are constantly refined and those wanting to advance can receive
training to continue to excel. Typically, students can’t come into
Appliance Park until they are 17 or 18 years old, but we know that to
interest students in manufacturing as a career option, they must see it
and experience it at an earlier age … that’s why we’re doing this and
other things to bring manufacturing to them.”

According to the Bluegrass Economic Advancement Movement (BEAM) and the
Kentucky Cabinet for Economic Development, the Louisville area’s
manufacturing sector is an $11 billion industry, representing 17 percent
of the region’s economic activity and 13 percent of regional employment.

But Greater Louisville manufacturers are not finding enough qualified
candidates to sustain and grow their businesses. According to the
Louisville Labor Market Report for 1Q 2016, there were nearly 2,000
advanced manufacturing skilled job openings, which demonstrates not only
the demand for these jobs but the opportunity for those who choose a
career path in the skilled trades.

Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer will participate in the virtual tour of
Appliance Park with 8^th grade students at Carrithers Middle
School. Mayor Fischer commented, “In the same way colleges scout
middle-school athletes, we need to be recruiting the next generation of
manufacturers at an early age so they and their parents can select an
educational path that prepares them. Manufacturing is a huge driver of
Louisville’s economic engine. To sustain and grow that important
industry, we must create a robust pipeline of skilled trades and
entry-level, work-ready manufacturing employees.”

“The virtual tour offered by GE Appliances is an incredible opportunity
for our students and is a tangible example of the strong partnerships
JCPS has built with industry leaders in our community,” said JCPS
Superintendent Dr. Donna Hargens. “Through technology, our students can
visit Appliance Park, learn about its operations, see what they are
learning in the classroom applied in the real world and get inspired
about their future careers. Thanks to GE Appliances for making this
experience possible for our students.”

Throughout October, GEA also will support other events to showcase
manufacturing to middle- and high-schools students, including:

• Junior Achievement (JA) will be coordinating tours of Appliance Park
  for JCPS high-school students from Doss, Jeffersontown and Butler the
  weeks of October 3 and 14 with support from GEA’s Women in Supply
  Chain organization and Advanced Manufacturing Technicians.
• GEA will have a booth at JA’s Inspire Event, October 26-27, at the
  Expo Center. This career exploration event for 8^th grade
  students, which is supported by students in GEA’s manufacturing
  program and Advanced Manufacturing Technicians (AMTs), as well as
  Amatrol, Inc., who designs, develops and manufactures technical
  learning systems and hands-on simulators, will be highly interactive
  and focused on educating them about the skills, training, salaries and
  career paths at GEA. The goal is that students are inspired to select
  a high school with manufacturing/engineering programs.

For more information on which JCPS schools offer curriculum in
skilled trades/advanced manufacturing, please contact Terry Miller at
(502) 485-8589. For Bullitt County Area Technology Center, visit http://www.bullitt.k12.ky.us/25/Home.

About GE Appliances

GE Appliances, a Haier company, makes moments that matter for our owners
through our passion for making great appliances and providing
unparalleled services. We make with our hands, heads and hearts. We make
with integrity, inventiveness and ingenuity. For more than 125 years, we
have been creating a legacy of invention—we’ve electrified and
modernized life, bringing convenience and fun to kitchens. GE Appliances
products include refrigerators, freezers, cooking products, dishwashers,
washers, dryers, air conditioners, water filtration systems and water
heaters. For more information on GE Appliances, visit www.geappliances.com.

Contacts

GE Appliances
Kim Freeman
502-452-7819
Kim_freeman@geappliances.com