The Kuder Career Planning System administrative database results for the past five years have shown a low interest in the manufacturing career cluster among Arkansas students. The low student interest and shortage of high-skilled labor in manufacturing prompted the Arkansas Department of Career Education to invest grant funds in a new manufacturing curriculum for career orientation teachers to implement as an intervention in their classrooms. The intervention intent was to inform eighth graders about career opportunities in manufacturing and the skills necessary to compete for high-skill, high-wage, and high demand manufacturing careers in an effort to help alleviate the shortage of skilled manufacturing workers in Arkansas. The purpose of the current study was to investigate if the intervention influenced Arkansas students’ interests in manufacturing as measured by the Kuder Career Interest Assessment (KCIA).

The data presented represent the results of a quantitative control and experimental group study. The control group received the traditional manufacturing curriculum, whereas the experimental group received the curriculum intervention. The teachers administered the KCIA as a pretest and posttest to measure the effects of the curricula on students' interests in manufacturing careers.

Research results produced no significant difference between pretests and posttests for either the control or experimental groups. Posttest scores for the manufacturing cluster for the control and experimental groups were lower than the pretest scores for both groups, although the mean differences were not significant. Males in the experimental group scored significantly higher than did females on the posttest for the manufacturing cluster; no gender differences existed for the control group. Teacher differences, revealed through qualitative survey questions, in preparation and instruction time for both the traditional and intervention curricula had no statistically significant effect on students’ resultant career interests in manufacturing.