While reports are showing a large skills gap resulting in millions of unfilled manufacturing jobs, some manufacturers are taking action. By promoting STEM careers early on or providing opportunities for training, companies are working to close this gap and gain a competitive advantage.
Like most manufacturers, Max Daetwyler Corp. requires highly skilled employees to produce and service its products. But unlike most other manufacturers that struggle to find good workers, the Huntsville, N.C., maker of printing press machinery has a private pipeline of qualified recruits to keep its production running smoothly.
Daetwyler is one of six North Carolina manufacturers combatting the manufacturing skills gap by participating in Apprenticeship 2000, a four-year program of community college classes in mechatronics and advanced manufacturing coupled with paid worksite apprenticeships. Each year, up to a dozen new high school graduates are selected to enter the program.
While the cost of participation isn’t cheap — companies pay an estimated $160,000 per student over four years — the payback is well worth it: A supply of enthusiastic young workers educated in the latest manufacturing technologies and best practices and trained in the specific skills needed by each manufacturer. In Daetwyler’s case, that is electronics, engineering and mechatronic field service.
“Companies ask me how we can afford this, but how can we afford not to?” said Bob Romanelli, apprenticeship coordinator at Daetwyler, adding that while not every graduate joins the company, many do. “Wouldn’t you rather have someone you trained yourself than hope to find some stranger who can do it?”
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The Fastener Museum, Workforce / Skills Gap
