100+ Fayette County Students Tour Saint-Gobain Plant on Manufacturing Day 2026

On a Friday morning in early October, more than 100 Fayette County high school students walked onto the production floor of a facility making roofing shingles in Peachtree City — and heard directly from two of the people who run the industry about why their generation matters to it.

Saint-Gobain and the Manufacturing Institute kicked off Manufacturing Day 2026 on October 2 by hosting students and educators from Fayette County Public Schools at Saint-Gobain's CertainTeed roofing plant in Peachtree City, according to dailywise.com. The students toured the facility and watched firsthand how CertainTeed roofing shingles are produced for homes across the country.

Manufacturing Institute President Carolyn Lee and Saint-Gobain North America and CertainTeed CEO Mark Rayfield both addressed the group, speaking about the range of career paths available in modern manufacturing, according to dailywise.com.

The stakes behind the field trip are significant. The Manufacturing Institute has warned that a skills gap could leave nearly 2 million manufacturing jobs unfilled by 2033, according to themanufacturinginstitute.org. Events like the Peachtree City tour are designed to counter a persistent perception gap — that manufacturing means dirty, low-skill work — by putting students inside a functioning modern plant.

For Fayette County students, the CertainTeed facility is a local example of an industry that operates at national scale. The shingles it produces ship to residential construction projects across the country.

Why it matters — With nearly 2 million manufacturing jobs potentially unfilled by 2033, events like this one give Fayette County students a direct, early look at a career sector that is actively recruiting — and that has a major employer already operating in their backyard.

Reported by fayette-news.net, nam.org, dailywise.com, themanufacturinginstitute.org, saint-gobain-northamerica.com, businesswire.com