Saint-Gobain Opens Peachtree City Plant to 100+ Fayette Students for Manufacturing Day
On the national kickoff of Manufacturing Day 2026, high schoolers from across Fayette County got a rare look inside the facility that makes CertainTeed roofing shingles — and a pitch for careers they may not have considered.
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On the morning of October 2, more than 100 Fayette County high school students walked onto a working factory floor in Peachtree City and watched the machines that turn raw materials into the roofing shingles on houses across the country. It was Manufacturing Day 2026 — and Saint-Gobain's local plant wasn't just participating. It was the national kickoff.
The Manufacturing Institute and Saint-Gobain chose the Peachtree City production facility to launch MFG Day 2026, welcoming students and educators from Fayette County Public Schools for tours of the plant where CertainTeed roofing shingles are made. 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 opportunities available in modern manufacturing.
Manufacturing Day — held every year on the first Friday of October — is designed to do exactly what happened in Peachtree City: get students inside real facilities, face to face with the work and the people who do it. According to NIST, MFG Day 2026 encompasses more than 3,000 events across the U.S. and Puerto Rico, with over 325,000 students, parents, and community members expected to attend throughout the month.
The pitch behind the day is straightforward: manufacturing has changed, and most students don't know it. The industry's image still carries the weight of decades-old stereotypes — dirty, low-skill, dead-end — while the actual floors increasingly run on automation, precision engineering, and technical expertise. Getting students physically into a plant is one of the most direct ways to close that gap.
For Fayette County students, the Saint-Gobain visit offered a concrete local example: a facility in their own backyard producing a product — residential roofing shingles — that ships to homes nationwide. The event drew students from across the county.
Events tied to MFG Day continue throughout October, with thousands of manufacturers nationwide opening their doors under the same banner.
Why it matters — For Fayette County students, a working factory floor a few miles from home just became a potential career path — and local employers get a direct line to the next generation of workers.
⚠ Not yet confirmed
- Saint-Gobain's first year as a platinum sponsor claim (unsupported)
- students representing all five of the county's public high schools (unsupported specific)
Reported by dailywise.com, nam.org, fayette-news.net, nist.gov
