Training

The Talking Shop column this month offers a conversation with a fresh "face of manufacturing."

Train your workers to sharpen their skills and keep them on the job, suggests this month's Shop Technology column in Cutting Tool Engineering magazine.

Machine shop managers in various regions across the country say they have struggled to fill open positions, and that the job applicants they get often do not have the requisite skills. But the experience of one shop in Massachusetts suggests that the real problem isn't a lack of willing job applicants as much as it is a lack of pertinent training programs.

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.”

National Institute for Metalworking Skills' network of certified training centers expands.

How a cooperative organization helps manufacturers train their employees in-house.

Connecticut Spring & Stamping developed an apprenticeship program to meet is own training needs.

The national conversation about the "skills gap" and its role in manufacturing continues to simmer, writes Alan Rooks of Cutting Tool Engineering magazine, in his Lead Angle column for the July 2013 issue.