Brian Cooksey, director of operations training and development at Shaw Industries, has made it his mission to show younger generations how different the industry is today from years past and that there are numerous exciting and challenging career choices in manufacturing. These include career opportunities people wouldn’t immediately connect with being part of manufacturing: chemists, interior designers, and advanced robotics programmers, among others.

“It’s not your grandfather’s carpet mill,” he says, as he takes visitors through one of Shaw’s plants. “It’s an advanced manufacturing facility.”

Cooksey is the Georgia Manufacturing Extension Partnership’s (GaMEP) June Face of Manufacturing.

Manufacturing — which employs 365,000 across Georgia — remains a critical sector in the Peach State’s economy. The Faces of Manufacturing initiative is designed to show how individuals such as Cooksey and the companies where they work keep the communities in which they operate strong and thriving economically and socially.

“Growing up in a small town that was supported by two large manufacturing plants, it was clear that manufacturing jobs provided for families and helped support my community,” he said. “I found that to be the same in Dalton and in Shaw.”

Keeping the industry strong explains why Cooksey is committed to the Investing in Manufacturing Communities Partnership (IMCP) initiative, where he serves on the workforce development and steering committees for regional efforts in Northwest Georgia.

IMCP’s goal is to sustain the region’s floorcovering industry and keep it competitive. It tackles workforce development by assessing skills gaps and creating training curriculums, expanding supplier networks, and making operational improvements.

“The floorcovering industry is the backbone of our community,” Cooksey said.

Cooksey’s job is twofold. He is charged with keeping the carpet and flooring giant’s current workforce ready and nimble for its needs. He also leads several key initiatives to get the next generation of potential workers interested in manufacturing.

In 2010, he led efforts to create the Design, Engineering, and Manufacturing Camp for middle school students in Whitfield County. The camp, which has steadily grown from 24 in its inaugural year to this summer’s 125, shows youngsters how to solve problems and to think creatively and independently, but also to work as part of a team.

The kids get to design and build racing cars, carpet squares, and rockets using the same machines, tools, and software used in manufacturing.

Cooksey, the child of educators, also led a team in writing the Mechatronics Pathway curriculum, which is geared to high school students. The program, which has served as a model and is being adopted across Georgia, connects students’ interests and skills with manufacturers’ needs.

The program also provides high school students who are interested in manufacturing with college credit, scholarships, internships, and apprenticeships.

“Students need to experience a manufacturing plant firsthand and see if it’s something they want to do,” Cooksey said. “It’s about shifting the image that kids have about manufacturing, and in doing so, we will change the game in workforce development for our communities and Georgia.”

By Péralte C. Paul