25 manufacturing scholarships available via YouTube promotion

Teen race car driver Brennan Palmiter is set to turn the ignition for “lap two” of the “Go-Brennan” YouTube Scholarship promotion that offers 25 scholarships of $500 each to students seeking careers in manufacturing.

Sponsored by The Fabricators & Manufacturers Association (FMA) Foundation and SolidWorks Corporation, the “GO-Brennan” Scholarships are tied to FMA’s sponsorship of 16-year-old stock car driver Palmiter’s 2008 racing season. Palmiter is proficient in four types of welding, a skill he uses to motivate other young people to consider the industrial trades as a career choice.

Palmiter appears in a video on YouTube inviting high school, trade school and college students to apply for the scholarships. To qualify for the competition, students must plan to attend a two-year trade or technical school next spring for classes in welding or other metal fabricating processes. To apply, students simply make a one-minute video explaining why they want to be in manufacturing, what career they seek, and where they want to attend school. They’ll also be encouraged to include footage of themselves welding or building with metal. The deadline to post videos is Nov. 9 and winners will be announced on Nov. 24.

In addition to the monetary prize, each scholarship winner will receive the full licensed version of the SolidWorks Student Design Kit CAD software, a Windows-based 3D CAD application that gives students the ability to create “real-life” 3D designs, and a VISTA auto-darkening welding helmet courtesy of The Lincoln Electric Company.

“We are pleased to again offer the ‘Go Brennan’ scholarship promotion to students seeking careers in manufacturing,” Terrence Egan, director of the FMA Foundation said. “We look forward to creating excitement in the industry through this viral initiative, and seeing all of the applicants’ video testimonials of why they seek careers in manufacturing. With manufacturers across the country reporting shortages of skilled labor, it is important to attract young people to the many career opportunities in sheet metal fabrication and welding,” Egan added.

More information on the FMA Foundation and a link to Brennan Palmiter’s YouTube video are available at (www.fma-foundation.org).