Manufacturing: We Need Tech Savvy Workers ASAP!
Comments:
American manufacturing companies need high tech workers, but they are can’t find them - serious and continuing shortages of skilled workers that began six to 10 years ago have not been resolved, raising concerns that more jobs might go overseas.
It's a perfect storm - high percentages of workers at or near retirement age, and too few high schools and college students being trained for the computer skills needed.
"Factory workers are no longer button pushers. They have to understand how the process works. In some cases, the people who work with the equipment can make it do things it was never designed to do and improve its efficiency," says Rob Southard, business and industry training coordinator at Owensboro Community & Technical College (OCTC).
In this western Kentucky community, OCTC is developing creative and practical solutions to train those much-needed workers. Last year it provided training and other vocational services for 2,149 people and 345 companies in a city with just 54,000 residents.
The school's track record is exploding in 2008, starting with the February opening of it's $13 million state funded Advanced Technology Center. In March, the U.S. Department of Labor approved an almost $2 million grant for the college to "recruit and train future workers for the advanced manufacturing industry."
The Technology Center provides tailored employee training either on campus or at business sites, as well as offering associate degrees. Flexibility is the name of the game.
The Tennessee Valley Authority's Paradise Fossil Plant was first in line to have workers trained. Training began during the college’s spring break. When students returned, the Paradise workers and faculty teaching them switched their training from early in the day to 3:30 to 11:30 p.m. OTOC faculty are willing to work whatever hours a company needs, officials say.
Programs like this are saving companies up to 65 percent on training, and training more employees - one company will go from training three employees a year to 30 because the training is close to home.
The federal funding will start an apprenticeship program, buy $320,000 worth of mobile training equipment, and underwrite scholarships for "underskilled and underemployed" workers as well as high school and college students.
Nick Brake, president of the Greater Owensboro Economic Development Corp., said the opening of the center couldn't have come at a better time.
"We're seeing a lot of retirements," he says. "Of the peer cities that we measure ourselves against, we have been No. 1 in retention of manufacturing jobs. And it's really critical that we maintain those jobs.”
"Having a skilled work force is close to being the top factor in business recruitment," Brake added.
Owensboro may also be a great model for industries and education in “rust belt” communities throughout the upper Midwest.