Say “manufacturing job” and most people picture the same thing. A line. A repetitive task. Something loud and not especially skilled.

That picture is decades out of date, and it quietly removes a set of options from students who would be good at the work.

October is Manufacturing Month, which makes it a reasonable time to check the image against the job. In South Carolina, one of the clearest places to check is BMW’s plant in Spartanburg.

What the work actually asks for

BMW’s apprenticeship leadership has described the problem plainly: the plant needs people who combine mechanical skills, electrical skills, and IT knowledge in the same person, and those people are hard to find.

That’s the gap in one sentence. The stereotype says low-skill. The hiring reality says multiskilled, with automation and robotics in the mix.

It’s also why the path into this work looks different from the one most students are shown. BMW doesn’t wait for graduates to show up with the right combination. They build it, starting in high school.

It starts before you graduate

BMW launched its Rising Scholars program in 2021 for rising high school seniors. Apprentices work about 15 hours a week at BMW Manufacturing’s Training and Development Center while attending their regular high school and a career and technical education center.

The program is registered with the U.S. Department of Labor, so completing it means walking away with a federal apprenticeship certificate. It also makes you eligible for what comes next.

Fifteen students signed on to the first class.

Then it keeps going

The next step is the BMW Scholars Program, which has been running since the early 2010s. It’s a two-year apprenticeship where you work part-time at the plant while earning an associate degree at one of four partner institutions: Spartanburg Community College, Greenville Technical College, Tri-County Technical College, and Piedmont Technical College.

So a student can start as a high school junior and finish, two years after graduation, holding a federal certificate and an associate degree, having been paid the entire time.

What people actually get out of it

BMW reported more than 360 graduates of the Scholars program as of 2022, with nearly all of them offered a job at the plant. 

Set that against the default path. Four years, a significant tuition bill, and no guarantee of an offer at the end. The apprenticeship route produces a credential, a degree, work history, and an employer who already knows your name.

None of that makes it the right choice for everyone. It makes it a choice worth knowing exists before you’ve ruled it out based on a picture in your head.

How to find the version of this near you

BMW is one plant in one South Carolina county, and most readers don’t live there. The model is what travels.

• Find out whether your state has an apprenticeship office. South Carolina’s works with more than a thousand employers, and most states have something comparable. 
• Ask the technical or community college nearest you which manufacturers they partner with. Those partnerships are where high school programs usually live.
• Look for “registered apprenticeship” specifically. That label means the Department of Labor recognizes it, which makes the credential portable.
• Ask your school whether it has a career and technical education center, and what employer programs run through it.
• Tour a plant if you get the chance. Many run open houses during October, and twenty minutes inside one does more than any description.

The picture in your head came from somewhere. It’s worth finding out whether it came from anyone who has been inside the building lately.