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Employer Quotes

The quotes below are from employers in this industry: Manufacturing

They are talking about this topic: Occupation-Specific Skills

 

The quotes below are about this issue:
Respondents who represent system automation technology and machine technology occupations state they need workers with skills in quality inspection, maintenance, and program logic controls (PLCs). They also say that higher order computer skills are essential.

Employer Quote Region
"We're going more and more towards the automation and robotics. I was a little surprised, actually, that the data suggested that the supply was greater than the demand. I don't know about that. But I'm not in Metro, I'm out-state.

And it's not just needing the very high-level programming people, but also the people that are skilled to do the maintenance on whatever is required for automation programs. And it seems like—at least at our place—our lower-level people will call the more mid-level person, maybe at three in the morning, to say that a particular piece of machinery isn't working. It's not necessarily a call about a mechanical failure; it could be anything from a switch to maybe some sort of programming bug. Technology is great, but we've got to have the people that keep it going."
Metro
"There was an initiative done to add a job description or a job title at the Department of Labor level for a quality inspector, qualified as a metrologist, and it got denied. So, if it doesn't come from there, we all will have to—I don't know if I'll say 'suffer the consequences'—but we'll have to just pay for it." Metro
"They've got the basic technical skills. We haven't really found a lot of gap there other than maybe some lean manufacturing training." Metro
"Employer 1: We have a lot of employees that need quality precision training.

Employer 2: Yeah. I think if you're going to call someone a tech school grad, then that training should be already done.

Employer 1: We don't want to have to re-train on that. That's an accepted standard."
Metro
"Our trend is that—as we continue with our industry—quality becomes more and more important. And that's not going to go away. We're going to continue the quality inspectors, but our machinists are required to be inspectors as well. So, that's where that gap is—they do inspection on their part while at the machine—but they don't have that basic skill." Metro
"That expands into the electronic design—not only the operation of them—but the design of them and the building and maintenance of them, too. Not just the people that are operating them, because they can do the basic maintenance, but it is the higher level of program and maintenance. There seems to be a real void there also." Northwest
"When we get someone new it takes a lot of time to train them. And where I see deficiencies—and where it contrasts with your data—is the Baby Boomers. We've got a big group of Boomers and, as they retire and leave the workforce, that supply doesn't match it. We're going to be in a lot of trouble because it takes time to train new people. All of our machinery is computer-controlled, it's highly specialized, it's a lot of technology. We're not seeing enough people come out of the program who can fill those positions." Northwest
"MnSCU, they can think ahead, they need to focus more on automation technology." Northwest
"On our production floor, we need more skills relative to what we can get from the community college and good two-year programs. In our case, we have very capital intensive businesses, and we need a skill set that can maintain those pieces of equipment, so there is a balance." Southeast
"Finding a well-rounded maintenance person is nearly impossible for us. In rural Minnesota, somebody hit on the idea that they can come in at $30 an hour right out of technical college. And they have only book skills, no hands-on relevant experience. Or you have the older generation that has a lot of years of experience, but they're very set in their ways. They're not going to work with your hours. There's just a huge gap for us in maintenance.

When I saw the numbers—that supply and demand are supposedly equal—I was doubtful. I've seen postings across many cities for technicians, so we're competing with everybody else. And they're job-hopping because they make more money, maybe an extra buck an hour, if they switch jobs."
Southeast
"I need good machine operators. People that can run the machines with the PLCs." Southwest
"I'll go right into electronics and robotics—PLCs. Every new piece of technology that we pull into our plant has a PLC—a programmable logic control. It's basically a touch-screen computer where you set how that machine is going to run. And I have a tough time getting even people who I've hired out of technical schools to be able figure it out and run it—even after we've trained them for 20 hours on it." Southwest