We’ve got a real problem on our hands in America. A gap’s growing between US manufacturing workers set to retire in the next 10 to 15 years and those on the other end of the spectrum. Despite the exciting and innovative things happening in the industry, millennials’ outdated perception of shop-floor jobs increasingly precludes them from following the career path. And Gen-Z, thumb deep in their smartphones, face an even more significant disconnect. Read more
At a steel factory dwarfed by the adjacent Auto Club Speedway, Fernando Esparza is working toward his next promotion.
Esparza is a 46-year-old mechanic for Evolution Fresh, a subsidiary of Starbucks that makes juices and smoothies. He’s taking a class in industrial computing taught by a community college at a local manufacturing plant in the hope it will bump up his wages. Read more
Most of us, regardless of our age, have heard the song popularized by Sophie Tucker and Eddie Cantor after World War I: “How Ya Gonna Keep ‘Em Down on the Farm (After They’ve Seen Paree?).” Read more
Advanced manufacturing is already one of the most in-demand industries in America due to workforce retirements and natural business growth, but it’s also an industry with a severe shortage of skilled workers. Read more
Throughout most of U.S. history, American high school students were routinely taught vocational and job-ready skills along with the three Rs: reading, writing, and arithmetic. Indeed readers of a certain age are likely to have fond memories of huddling over wooden workbenches learning a craft such as woodwork or maybe metal work, or any one of the hands-on projects that characterized the once-ubiquitous shop class. Read more
President Donald Trump, like many politicians before him, has an obsession with boosting the American manufacturing sector – a part of the job market that has largely been on the decline since the 1980s. That obsession endures among many voters, too, even though factory jobs are unlikely to return to their former glory because of increased competition from foreign exporters and increased automation. Read more
On December 9, 2016, I revisited Workshops for Warriors to find out what had been accomplished in the past four years since I had toured the facility during their first Manufacturing Day on October 5, 2012, and met retired naval officer Hernán Luis y Prado, founder and president of Workshops for Warriors (WFW). Read more
General Electric runs two plants in a small New Hampshire town just south of the state’s capital, employing 800 workers. GE Aviation is the largest employer in town, with skilled workers building jet engines for the world’s major airlines, reports ABC News. Read more
When you back up a commitment with $75 million, people tend to pay attention. I’m certainly paying attention to New Skills for Youth (NSFY), the $75 million grant initiative sponsored by JPMorgan Chase to change the way we approach career and technical education in the U.S. Read more
HIGHER EDUCATION The importance of manufacturing to our economic well-being is not a mystery to the manufacturing industry. But how can we get today’s youth to see the value of a manufacturing career? Read more
