Manufacturing Career Day held at East Peoria High School Submitted by Denise Molina on Fri, 04/13/2012 - 12:32pm Area manufacturing companies including Caterpillar were at East Peoria high school Friday hoping to get kids interested in fabrication careers. The East Peoria Chamber of Commerce partnered with Caterpillar, Illinois Central College, Bradley University and ATS to hold the first of its kind, Manufacturing in the USA Career Day.   High school and junior high students learned about the types of manufacturing jobs available, the skills required to get those jobs, and they received hands-on time at manufacturing-related displays. Caterpillar Group President Steve Wunning says it’s important to educate students about the opportunities in manufacturing early, so they can take the necessary classes:   "One of our biggest challenges is finding enough skilled people to work within our plants, to work with our dealers, and our suppliers. I think many of them (suppliers) are having the same challenges in terms of finding the right types of people that have the skills that we need in manufaturing," says Wunning.   Ten manufacturing companies participated in the Career day. About 1500 students attended.