Advanced Manufacturing Growth Centre Victoria/Tasmania director Michael Grogan said businesses were looking for skilled employees.

"Their biggest concern - outside energy, I'll admit a lot of companies want to talk about energy first - their second conversation is about skills and getting people," he said.

Mr Grogan and University of NSW's Veena Sahajwalla, the director of the Centre for Sustainable Materials Research and Technology, met with Albury-Wodonga business representatives to discuss the future of advanced manufacturing in the region, resilience and funding innovative projects.

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"Certainly, companies that came along were really open to what was happening and hungry to understand the trends and analysis that are out there," Mr Grogan said.

"It's starting the conversation, where do we go, following it up, come back, pick out where we can provide assistance.

"Provide the feedback to government on things, start that whole process of them understanding as well, it's continuous, it's not a single event that's going to have a start and a finish."

The visitors also gave a presentation at Trinity Anglican College to highlight the industry.

"We've got to engage young people to come into manufacturing," Mr Grogan said.

"The first perception you get from parents or people who aren't involved is 'Didn't we stop doing that in Australia?'.

"You know, we're still employing 1.3 million people in manufacturing and the jobs are good jobs, higher paid and full-time ... they're highly skilled jobs."

Professor Sahajwalla, who specialises in recycling science, praised companies' response to the challenge of dealing with waste.

"The fact they're open to the whole idea and not afraid," she said.

"So that waste no longer becomes a problem but in fact it will be an opportunity in the future and I was blown away with the enthusiasm."

Trinity Anglican College principal Justin Beckett said it was inspiring for students to hear about the endless possibilities in the STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) subjects.

"And that there will be jobs in the sector - the jobs that our students will fill - that don't even exist yet," Mr Beckett said.

"Veena spoke about pushing the boundaries of current understanding and to be prepared for critics who say it can't be done, at the same time as you are doing it."​

Mr Grogan noted manufacturing covered a range of industries, such as food and agriculture, oil, gas and medical technology.

"We don't define advanced manufacturers as what they make," he said.

"It's how they make it and their business models."

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