Overcoming the skills gap: Medical Manufacturing

The difference in the skills required on the job and the actual skills job candidates possess—the skills gap—has been a topic of discussion since I started covering metal cutting and grinding more than 16 years ago, and its origin probably dates back at least to the time when carbon steel was the primary cutting tool material.

Whether the cause is a lack of proper education for industrial trades at schools, inadequate compensation, a feeling that those running manufacturing companies mistreat their employees (see first letter in the Letters to the Editor section on page 18) or some other reason is open to debate. Nonetheless, people continue to proactively do something about overcoming the skills gap, and I’d like to highlight two such efforts.

After developing a four-page piece titled “Machining a Great Career Path” and receiving a positive reply to its posting on the website for his local SME chapter, Matt Schowalter wanted to make his story, his six steps to success and insightful information about machining more accessible to interested students. To help achieve this, he launched the website machiningcareer.com earlier this year. The site includes a blog about information that Schowalter feels could be helpful to a student.

Matt Schowalter (left), developer of machiningcareer.com, discusses machining with students at a career fair. Image courtesy Matt Schowalter.

“I put my story out there to give kids some direction on where to go for information,” Schowalter said. “It covers the things that I was confused about when I was that age. For example, they tell you math is important in machining—but nobody could really tell me what math is important, so I put that on the website too.”

Although Schowalter is the machining group lead at Gauthier Biomedical Inc., Grafton, Wis., which produces some of its medical devices on Swiss-style machines with up to 11 axes, he emphasized that he commits his time, effort and money to promoting machining careers because he’s passionate about what he does for a living and not to profit from it nor necessarily to attract and help train new co-workers. “I want to fill up everyone’s shop with people,” Schowalter said. “It’s my way to give back.”