Stereotyping the stereotypes: Workforce Development & Training

Any conversation about training and skills development in the metalworking industry tends to stir up emotions. Pretty soon, people are complaining about the same three things over and over: “Our manufacturing plants are stereotyped as dark, dirty and greasy;” “We can’t get people to consider manufacturing jobs because we’re negatively stereotyped by parents and high-school guidance counselors;” and “There aren’t enough available workers with the right skills.” Frankly, we talk about these things so much and so often that we’re becoming stereotypes: the people who only complain about being stereotyped. It’s time to get over feeling sorry for ourselves and do something about it.

Regarding manufacturing plants, I’ve been in a few that are still dirty and greasy or, at least, poorly lit. For those plants, it’s time to clean up and brighten up. I’ve also been in plants, like the Paul Horn GmbH cutting tool factory in Tübingen, Germany, where you can barely hear or smell anything being manufactured due to high-efficiency ventilation and soundproofing. If you have a plant that is clean and looks great, invite students and other groups to tour it while you talk up manufacturing.

Why can’t we get more people to consider manufacturing jobs? It might have something to do with the number of manufacturing jobs being at a 50-year low, following the massive job losses during the Great Recession. Yes, some manufacturing jobs have come back, but not as many as were lost, and people know that. We have to sell those people—practically on an individual basis—on the idea that the metalworking sector of manufacturing is actually doing pretty well and has available jobs.

Finally, what to do about the shortage of skilled workers? More and more, the answer is not to wait for the local community college to send graduates to your doorstep, but to go out and recruit them while you train your existing workers to upgrade their skills. In one of the articles in a special training section in this issue of CTE, Connecticut Spring & Stamping, Farmington, Conn., describes how it developed an apprenticeship program to increase its workers’ skill levels after the collapse of training programs at local schools left them with few options (page 78). Another article focuses on how the Center for Advanced Manufacturing Puget Sound, Kent, Wash., helps its member-companies share information on how to develop structured on-the-job training programs to help fill the skills gap.