WHEELING, ILL. — Javier Tamayo looks like a journeyman machinist as he briskly turns a wrench to replace a chipped tool in a computerized cutting device at Bridgestone’s metal parts factory here.
Tamayo, 19, landed the $12-an-hour job last year after graduating from Wheeling High School’s manufacturing program and is on his way to a career that pays upwards of $80,000 a year.
Wheeling has been turning out hire-ready manufacturing workers like Tamayo for six years. It’s one of a growing number of U.S. high schools that have launched or revived manufacturing programs in recent years to guide students toward good-paying jobs and help fill a critical shortage of skilled machinists, welders and maintenance technicians.