Guest blog post by Bill Yeargin, CEO of Correct Craft and Member of the Commerce Department's Manufacturing Council

At Correct Craft’s largest subsidiary, Nautique Boats, we are in the business of fun. And, not just for our customers!

Our team loves any opportunity to demonstrate how manufacturing boats can be a fun and rewarding career. In October, we use National Manufacturing Day as an opportunity to bring in students from our community and we also arrange another day during the year to bring in the children of our employees. Both of these days are highlights of our year as we share our passion with those who will come behind us!

During the visits the students are excited to learn about both the great work environment and all the opportunities there are in boat manufacturing. Students that are artistic see opportunities to design and create new product; students who like math see opportunities to engineer solutions; students who like to fix things see our Industrial Engineering team; and students who are handy see plenty of opportunities to use their skills. The list goes on and every time we have a group visit us you can see the excitement in their eyes!

During their visit we not only give the students a tour and lunch but we also give them plenty of opportunity to interact with our team. And, when we can, we try to squeeze in a boat ride! The students quickly pick up on the enthusiasm our team feels for manufacturing boats here in the U.S. that go all around the world. They experience a bright and high energy atmosphere that is safe and full of excitement.  Students are always excited to see that manufacturing boats is diverse and requires many different skills; they can visualize themselves working in that environment.

Through our Nautique Cares program we do a lot of good work all around the world. However, near the top of that list is opening up a world of opportunities to students and inspiring them to be the best they can be!