For the first time, Fresno City College is hosting a High School Manufacturing Summer Camp.
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The demand for workers in manufacturing continues to grow, but there's just not enough people entering the industry.
"Here in the Central Valley, we have a lot of manufacturing jobs," shared Chalome Gonzalez, a FCC counselor. "If you can learn how to program and the computer side of it all, then you'll definitely have lots of job opportunities at your door."
Fresno City College is hoping to fill those empty positions by introducing high school students to everything the industry has to offer.
"You get to be exposed to all these great things that you might not get to do in high school, only in college, but we're bringing it to you here at Fresno City," Gonzalez said.
On the first day of camp, students learned about the welding basics through a virtual reality training tool.
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"It allows us to introduce and introduce those five key welding techniques before they get into a booth," said Charles Jeffress, a FCC welding instructor. "By the time they get into a booth, they're already accelerating and understanding what's going on."
Students will rotate through the different fields in manufacturing and finish up each rotation with a project - including programming a robot.
"They'll be able to manually manipulate it and program it to go through certain movements and instructions," said Darren Adams, an electrical systems technology program instructor.
The program's goal is to show students there are numerous opportunities to make a good-living in a blue-collar career.
Fresno City is hoping to offer it every summer.