Local Milpitas manufacturing companies Flex Industries and Venture Corporation hosted Manufacturing Day 2025 on Oct. 17. Students from MHS and Calaveras Hills were invited to learn about the various advanced manufacturing resources available to them within the city.
For the trip, students were split into several groups and given guided tours of the facilities. Flex provided students with a live demonstration of how their assembly line and technicians work together to form a smooth flow of production. Various methods of advanced post-manufacturing quality assurance techniques, such as x-ray and electron microscope machines were also shown to students. Venture also provided students with demonstrations of how their products, such as label printers, were able to help clients.
Both Flex and Venture also provided interactive activities such as soldering a flashlight and running an assembly line, which engaged students using hands-on techniques. Students were also given opportunities to network and learn more about careers within the manufacturing industry with employees.
Flex Industries began hosting Manufacturing Day for the City of Milpitas four years ago with a focus on college students, Senior Director of Materials and Logistics Micki Christensen said.
“Milpitas Unified School District reached out to us and said, ‘We understand you’re doing manufacturing here, and we’d like to bring our high schoolers,’” Christensen said. “So it started out with just high school. Then during COVID, we did Zoom calls. … It’s grown because they added adult education, and they added the Innovation Extension.”
The program has also enabled students to discover more opportunities and career pathways, Christensen said.
“We have seen some students come here, especially as interns, and then later convert to regular employees,” Christensen said. “It’s been successful, and not only that, it’s also led people that have gone and have seen the manufacturing day, that then go on to college and come back on tours.”
District Board President Chris Norwood, who is also the Chair for the Milpitas Economic Development and Trade Commission, worked alongside the School Board and the City of Milpitas to help organize the event. This city business unit had one goal in mind when planning this event, he said.
“Good will between the city, its businesses, is good for the city and the business,” Norwood said. ”Good will between the school district and the businesses – it’s good for our future, the future workforce, and for our parents that are adult learners over at adult ad, and most importantly, our students to get some hands-on experiences outside of the classroom.”
There are a lot of opportunities for students in Milpitas, Norwood said.
“For example, Venture makes the DNA sequencer,” Norwood said. “ There are so many companies in Milpitas that make the world move because we are part of a nucleus of the advanced manufacturing center for the United States. Not just our region. We can do the research. We look at advanced manufacturing in the Bay Area – we are one of the global hubs for advanced manufacturing, with partnering companies, and all these other countries.”
Junior Jack Lugo, who attends the Innovation Campus Extension, is interested in a manufacturing career path, he said.
“It was a very incredible experience,” Lugo said. “I think I found everything very inspiring, hearing all the jobs, how you can get into it. They definitely gave a lot of insight to how they made it to their profession. They listed out, ‘Oh, I did this, I did this. I went for this degree, and I made it.’”
The district is dedicated to the pathways available to students, including options like going to college or directly joining the workforce, Norwood said.
“We’re thinking about the future of this environment, thinking about the future of the region,” he said. “We’re thinking about how we can prepare you to be your best selves with all the things that are happening in the Milpitas Unified School District.”
