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Employer Quotes

The quotes below are from employers in this industry: Manufacturing

They are talking about this topic: General Skills

 

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Employers need new hires that possess strong problem-solving and critical-thinking skills; these skills are needed in order for employees to fulfill their role within the manufacturing process and to be able to quickly adapt to new technology.

Employer Quote Region
"As I think about what our needs are, for the most part, we're preparing machinists off of a tech school program. So, they've got the basic technical skills, and we haven't really found a lot of gap there—other than maybe some lean manufacturing training. But we're also looking for them to have analytical skills, to be able to communicate, to be able to work as a team member, and to be able to make decisions right at the machine. We're not necessarily finding a lot of those skills now with the programs they're coming from." Metro
"Talking about problem-solving skills, a lot of times you do get people that understand how to run a piece of equipment, but then—how to fix a problem? That really is the issue. At least have a means of problem-solving, a thought pattern of problem-solving. And, typically, even the trained ones, they end up coming back as soon as something goes wrong. They go to the next person up, the next person up, and the next person up to finally get resolution—where most things could just be fixed right on the floor, if they just had that concept of problem-solving." Metro
"You've got to keep being productive, keep moving along. You can't just stop and let somebody else solve the problem for you. It's just part of it." Metro
"Employer 1: MnSCU could help by helping students with problem-solving skills.

Employer 2: Problem-solvers are important to a system. Also, students should understand that the job that they are working today won't be the same job they're working in five years. It may change a lot.

Employer 3: Yeah, so preparing students for that."		 Northwest
"High school is sufficient, but if we could raise that level a little bit it would make it that much better as we continue to refine. As we get leaner and leaner, we need to have smarter and smarter people. People that have a better understanding, that can recognize things that aren't quite right, and that can find solutions to change those things." Northwest
"I think there's danger in putting too much focus on particular things though. You want someone to be the guy to put the screw in the back of the whatever—that's boring. You got to cross-train people on the job, and make them more valuable to your company. The same thing on overly-focusing on education, you're only trained to do this and you're not going to—some of the best ideas come from the most divergent things that you can think of, you know? I think there's a danger in saying that you should just train in one particular area and that's it. That's one thing a college education is good for—to get exposed to a lot of different ideas that they can then bring in, and be a problem-solver on the job." Southeast
"So, in college and with these training programs—fine, you got the 'A'—but it seems that the vast majority is studying hard to get the 'A,' but they're not learning how to learn. They're not creative problem-solvers on the job. They have to be micro-managed. In our company, you've got to be a Swiss Army knife. We're going to put you on something; you figure it out. We'll give you some parameters, but you have to be a problem-solver. How much of that is happening in the education process with these community colleges?" Southeast
"One of the great statistics I heard—although I don't how accurate it was—is that everything a graduate from a university engineering program learned will be obsolete in five years. So, if someone doesn't have the critical thinking skills to move on to the next set of technology, to move on to the next set of problems that are being presented—then, boy, you're in a tough spot." Southwest
"The most important thing I learned in college was how to teach myself. That was the most important thing I learned. And that's not what everybody learns coming out of any type of higher degree program. They've learned how to jump through the hoops for the professor to get the grade, to get the certificate, to get on with their life, and to make money. But they didn't necessarily learn how to learn. And I see it when I work with a co-worker to build maintenance programs. I've got a bunch of guys who can go out there and turn wrenches on the equipment that we have right now. But I'm looking at the next generation of Dutch engineering thinking, 'I want that. I want that in my plant right now.' And I know that it's going to be an incredible uphill slog to get my current maintenance force to be able to fix that new technology. So, something that the higher institutions could focus on to help us out—me anyway—is teaching students how to learn rather than teaching them how to check the box. Because I see a lot of check-the-box education." Southwest
"I can't tell you guys that I'm going to need 'X' in four or five years. I'm not sure what I'm going to need next year. I mean, you know the types of projects that are coming in and the rate of change that's going on. The skills levels that we will need? I can't tell you that now. But I agree with everything that you guys are saying—that critical thinking is definitely important. Learn how to learn, and be ready to learn.

Maybe that's something that needs to be drilled into everybody that's out there, 'Yeah, you're smart. You did great. You got the certificate. But there are a lot of things that you haven't figured out, so be ready for that.'"		 Southwest
"Yeah, get us people with open minds and that critical thinking—or common sense—approach to things. People who can problem-solve. Maybe it is a little bit more of a well-rounded education." Southwest
"I want to build on something another respondent said—and forgive me if I don't get the language correct—but you used the phrase 'common sense' and I'd use the phrase 'critical thinking skills.' My experience is at [non-MnSCU college], and one of the things that just stunned me was that—when I was there—all my colleagues used multiple choice tests. They did not use essay tests because it took too long to grade them. So, we end up with a group of people that can put the round peg in the round hole and the square peg in the square hole, but when they get a triangle peg, they don't know what to do with it. And that's what I call critical thinking—to be able to say, 'Okay, what am I going to do with this triangle?'

We're a small manufacturing company and very diverse. We have lots of different processes across a very large building. And we expect our engineers and people to be able to move from area to area, to look at a problem, and to come up with potential solutions for that problem and applications to solve it. They can't just be relying on rote rules. Because, like I told my students at [MnSCU college], 'You're going into a world that's not multiple choice.' So, that's what I'm afraid of—that we end up with mechanics and not thinkers."		 Southwest
"I think the most important thing is that we can't have 'box-checkers.' You can't just check off boxes, we've got to have somebody who can go through their process—whether it's welding or electronics soldering or automation design—who knows what they're trying to accomplish and why they're doing it. Not someone who looks in a textbook and says, 'This is what I have to do here.'" Southwest
"If you're going to go to a technical school, here are some of the things that you need to work on: You have to have a basic understanding of logic. You need to have a basic understanding of math. You need to be able to use a computer fairly effectively. You need to be able to problem-solve and troubleshoot." Southwest
"The biggest push, the biggest pressure on higher education right now is responding exactly to what you're talking about. Going from grades, multiple choice tests, and that kind of valuation to outcome-based education. And there's a huge push to make sure that those are the outcomes—critical thinking and problem-solving. Business schools are looking at the same thing. They've got to have those." Southwest
"You have to have a group of people prepared to be nimble enough to move with whatever's going to happen. And I think the only way you can do that is to have a really basic foundation of asking, 'Why?' You know, whether it's soldering or electronics, asking, 'Why? What's happening here? What's making this work?'" Southwest