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Manufacturers Want A New Type Of Worker With Advanced Skills

Who will create the training programs to teach workers the advanced skills, and where will the money come from?

The crisis is finally upon us. A report from the Manufacturing Institute estimates that 25 percent (2.7 million of 11 million) workers in manufacturing are now 55-65 years old. The retirement of baby boomers is well underway and will accelerate in coming years. These are the experienced workers who have accumulated the most skills and will be difficult to replace.

Another problem is that there are 2.4 million manufacturing workers who have been laid off since 2007, but companies say they don’t want these workers — they want people with advanced skills. A recent survey of 1,123 manufacturers shows that these companies cannot fill up to 600,000 skilled positions today.

The third problem is where will these people with advanced skills come from? More specifically, who will create the training programs to teach workers the advanced skills, and where will the money come from?

What Does it Mean by Advanced Skills?

Tom Friedman says, companies are looking for “people who not only have the critical thinking skills to do the value-adding jobs that technology can’t, but also people who can invent, adapt, and reinvent their jobs every day.”  

Perry Sainati, the CEO of Beldon Universal — a manufacturer of universal joints — says “today’s lean manufacturing companies are looking for skilled workers who think like engineers and who bring to the job each day a broad knowledge of product design and product development.

MotoKo Rich in a New York Times article describes advanced skills as operating and maintaining computerized machinery, reading complex blueprints, and demonstrating higher machine proficiency.

The Mosaic Company, a manufacturer of fertilizer with 7000 employees, identified two job types that are needed in the future. The first category is a journeyman mechanic, who can do pipe fitting, iron working, sheet metal, welding, and rigging. The second category is called EIA (Electrical instrumentation and automation specialist), who handles electrical components, instrumentation, programmable logic controllers, and computer controlled machines and systems.

I think these last two descriptions are fairly typical of what is needed in many manufacturing industries in terms of advanced skills. It suggests a new type of worker will be needed with skills that range from a 14 week course to train a CNC operator on the low end, to a worker with multiple skill sets, like a journeyman, on the high end.

To have the problem solving skills, or to think like an engineer, will require advanced training that begins with classroom training in science, reading, and math, perhaps from a community college. The community college can also teach courses on programmable logic controllers, programming, hydraulics, and pneumatics. But, in my opinion, the rest of the skills needed to become a highly skilled worker who, can work anywhere in the plant, must be taught on the job and in some kind of apprentice program sponsored by the manufacturing companies.

To make this article more specific and build a framework for conclusions, I would like to suggest my own opinion of what is meant by advance skills with three different examples.

Comprehensive Apprenticeship Programs –The NIMS Competency Based

Apprenticeship System brings national standards and third party objective assessments to the nation’s metalworking industry. To become a NIMS Certified Machinist, Toolmaker, CNC Setup Programmer, or a Certified Journey Worker, the apprentice must earn twelve NIMS credentials in demonstrating satisfactory performance in 28 core or required competencies.

A good example of this kind of training is Penn United a midsize manufacturer in Cabot, PA. They were the first manufacturer in the United States to be certified by NIMS. In response to the need to train people with advanced skills, they built a 17,000 square foot training center called LIGHT (the Learning Institute for the Growth of High Technology).

The training center contains three classrooms and four labs, and they offer 25 courses for their own and other companies’ employees. They are convinced that to manufacture world class products, apprentice training is required, so they offer four kinds of apprentice training: toolmaker (five years), precision machinist (four years), press technician (three years), and quality assurance technician (three years).

Another example is Blum Inc. of Stanley, NC, which produces lift systems, concealed hinges, and drawer runner systems for cabinets. Their program is called Apprenticeship 2000, and it guarantees the worker a job at graduation. The factory is heavily automated in a 450,000 square foot facility and the employees must operate, maintain, and repair the equipment as well as build dyes.

The apprentices receive both classroom and hands-on work skill training. The training programs can take up to 8,000 hours. They offer the employees paths for tool and die makers, electronic technicians, CNC machinists, machine technicians, mold/plastics technicians, and welding fabricators. Upon completion of the training, the workers receive an associate’s degree in manufacturing technology and a journeyman certification from the North Carolina Department of Labor

The Program to train the Mosaic Companies journeyman mechanics and electrical specialists is a two-year accelerated apprenticeship course. Students take classes two days a week, and have on-the job skill training the remainder of the week, while drawing a salary. The graduates receive 31 credits towards an Associates Degree, and a certification as a production technician

Apprentice Training that needs to be Designed

Service/Maintenance

There is a growing need to develop apprentice training for people who can repair, operate, troubleshoot, and service automated production machines in the modern manufacturing plant, as well as the servicemen from the OEMS that provide services to the companies that own automated lines.

The apprentice program for this kind of job needs to train people on how mechanical things work (sprockets, chains, belts, etc.), a working knowledge of pneumatics and hydraulics, the ability to utilize a troubleshooting methodology; the ability to read and understand electrical prints, the understanding of many PLC models, the ability to troubleshoot ladder logic programming without direction; the ability to add/change programming, knowledge of human machine interfaces; and knowledge of VFD controls, Device Net, Control Net and Ethernet.

Advanced Assembly Technician

This training is similar to the service and maintenance apprentice training. Assembly technicians need to be able to test and assemble custom built machines (like packaging machinery and robot systems); have skills in electrical wiring, instrumentation, PLCs, ladder logic programming, pipe fitting, welding, and mechanical ability. They also need to have knowledge of how things work (sprockets, chains, belts, etc), and advanced knowledge in pneumatics and hydraulics to eventually become a journeyman mechanic.

How can Government Help?

In explaining the America Works Act, representatives Halvorson, Minnick, Kratovil, and Bright make the point that advanced skill training must be industry driven.

They say “When employers tell us what skills are needed to excel in a manufacturing workplace, we should listen and make sure these are taught in our job training programs.”

In the past, the Labor Department funded training for manufacturers with the Workforce Investment Act and the High Growth job training imitative. These two programs were funded to the tune of about $7 billion dollars per year. An investigation of each program showed that little money was used for advanced manufacturing skill training as described in this article. Contrary to what the three government representatives have advised, it does not appear government is really listening to the manufacturers and training is still not industry driven

Government has also proposed some new training initiatives:

  • America Works Act (Sept. 29, 2010) – This act is supposed to be driven by skills that are recognized by industry, and designed to provide the student with a certification that is portable. This act should modernize other Federal training programs such as the WIA, the Perkins Vocation and Technical Education Act, and the Trade Adjustment assistance Act. 
  • Innovate America Act – This is an education bill that aims at doubling the number of high school graduates who major in science and math.
  • Skills for America’s Future – This is part of Obama’s Economic Recovery Act, which is designed to create better training in high schools and to convince young men and women that working in manufacturing is a good career. The act also creates partnerships between industry and community colleges.

At this point these programs have not been funded by Congress, but the biggest flaw of them is that none of the programs specifically identify the advance skills that industry says it needs. President Obama has set a goal of having an additional five million community college degrees and certificates by 2020.

There are some real obstacles for implementing advanced training and creating the new advanced skill workers that everybody needs:

  1. To create this new type of skilled worker (that everybody wants) and replace the baby boomers, it will take a different kind of training program based on some variation of the apprentice model.
  2. There are no shortcuts to apprentice type training, and manufacturers will have to invest in training that will take hundreds, if not thousands of hours.
  3. New employees will want pay increases as they progress and complete the various skill categories.
  4. Advanced training is going to require long term commitment to the newly hired employee, and possibly a guaranteed job at the completion of the training.

What is the answer?

We are at a pivotal moment in manufacturing, and for America to stay innovative and competitive in the future is going to require a new type of skilled worker and advanced training.

  • Small & Midsize Manufacturers — Penn United, Mosaic, and Blum Inc. have made the commitment to advanced training, but this isn’t enough. Although they are numerous, they do not have the resources to solve the whole problem.
  • Government — Historically, government training initiatives have always favored education programs, short duration training, and simply getting people back to work. Government training programs have always been just about jobs (not advanced skill jobs), because for politicians, creating any kind of job is the goal. I am skeptical that government will finance advanced training beyond giving community colleges money for two-year degrees.
  • Multi-National Manufacturers — The key players in this game who are absolutely pivotal in whether we train enough highly skilled workers, are the Fortune 500 publicly traded manufacturers who have approximately 55 percent or 6,325,000 manufacturing workers. Many of these large companies have been reducing labor costs and training costs for decades. Since 1990 the National Association of Manufacturers and the Manufacturing Institute, who represent the giant companies, have sponsored four different skill surveys, which have revealed that we are facing a severe shortage of skilled workers, and that they must expand their training budgets to solve the issue.

I see no evidence that a large number of the publicly held manufacturers are going to make the investment in long-term (apprentice type) training, or make the necessary long-term employment commitments to their employees to create the highly skilled workers needed. But training the new skilled workers of the future cannot be accomplished with out the giant companies

The fact is, highly skilled baby boomers are retiring every day and the skilled worker shortage continues to get worse. There is a current shortage of 600,000 highly skilled workers, but within 10 years we will need more then two million skilled workers.

I think this issue is going to be a true test of whether the giant manufacturers are going to invest in America’s future, or will just continue to do more surveys affirming that we desperately need the new skilled workers of the future. One way or another, American manufacturing is now in a jam and it is time to bite the training bullet.

Mike Collins is the author of Saving American Manufacturing. his website is www.mpcmgt.com.

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