1. Skip to content

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:
There is a need for machinists and machine operators who have the following skills: blueprint reading, analog technology, Swiss technology, and manual machining.

Employer Quote Region
"At our company, we don't see a demand for entry-level machinists that can only operate a basic miller lathe." Central
"One problem that we're running into is with the electronic portion, and I really do not know a good way to deal with it. Everything's going to advance—the digital, the wireless, and all of that. But a lot of products are based on analog technology, and that's not taught anymore. So, we're either stuck with hiring individuals that are at least 50 years old, in order to deal with those things—and it's not about age discrimination, but about building our workforce. We still need some of those older skills, too. I have to believe we're not alone that way, where you still need some of that analog electronic knowledge, and not just the digital wireless." Central
"We need sewers. There isn't a large enough demand for any industry to teach people how to sew, so we hire people who have the ability to sew or have had some experience doing sewing. And then we customize for our needs. We do custom upholstery for aerospace transportation, commercial, all the area sectors. And so we are required to teach them how to work with leather, how to do the custom things that we need to do." Northeast
"We're up on the Iron Range, and the skill set for the machinists up there is a little bit different than what they seem to be training for. I was on the board when they redesigned the machine technology program in 2005, and most of the people on the current advisory board are production companies that have a product they're making. Our company—we're a general machine shop that just takes on whatever kind of job—but they're training more for a production-oriented environment. With us, we need to be able to do whatever, including even taking a drawing, and they don't seem to be trained for that kind of skill set. It seems like it's set up more for making 10,000 of one part. Like in the mines, too, is more of the technical—where you may not have a drawing and you have to stick to a lot of figuring as far as what the plans would be. And the whole mindset is different when you're doing one part versus 10,000. A machinist that's trained for working in the mines probably wouldn't be a very good fit for our company, and vice versa, because the skill set is totally different. And we're the only company on the advisory board that is a job shop. Every other company is a manufacturer, and I think it seems to skew more towards that." Northeast
"We can go to many different machines, but really what we're not finding is the experience—the experienced set-up operator type person. The person that can set up, do the problem-solving, and understand the machine. You need three to five years of experience in order to get there." Northwest
"We found a need for blueprint reading classes, and we didn't have the time or resources to pull that together and teach it on-site." Northwest
"Manual machining is missing." Northwest
"They've got to have the degree, and then normally we'll want a minimum of two or five years of working experience. If you don't have those credentials, we generally won't even look at them—that's for manual and CNC." Northwest
"There's a big difference between working on a car and working on a piece of canning equipment. They are completely different. And when we did recruit, we looked for people who were mechanics their whole life. We thought. 'Okay, let's give them a shot.' And is it the same? Oh, no, it's not the same." Southeast
"We just hired a couple of mechanics that graduated from our CTC this spring. And our equipment is so specialized—it's canning equipment and it's any type of food packaging equipment—this is equipment that I don't believe they have at our CTC. These are things that will break down, and you may have to take them apart and rebuild them. And we're finding that when we hire someone with a degree or a certificate or whatever, once they get in there, it's hit or miss. They have the same degree, same education, but one can do it and one can't because the machines are so specialized. So, that's a problem we see." Southeast
"[MnSCU college] is actually the only one that has Swiss machines, and we use almost exclusively Swiss machines. I'm not sure exactly what the machine technology program at [MnSCU] is like—if it's classwork or a combination of classwork and actually working on machines. But if they don't have a Swiss machine, then from the get-go, they lack that experience. Although, when we're desperate, we might hire someone without that experience." Southwest
"You know those 18-month certificates or diplomas in basic machining? Now they can specialize in milling, multi-access turning, multi-access millings, Swiss machining. Those are going to be the higher specialized things as far as machining goes that are going to be needed. There probably will be a need for a third and a fourth year of education for each employee. That's my gut feeling. There's going to be a need for that type of stuff." Southwest
"And we need some of that as well—the skills for reading documentation and looking at assembly pictures." Southwest