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Employer Quotes

The quotes below are from employers in this industry: Manufacturing

They are talking about this topic: Needs & Challenges in Continuing Education

 

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The quotes below are about this issue:
Employers are interested in more extensive partnering with MnSCU on incumbent training programs. They are in need of training and certificate programs that are customized, on-site, and flexible. Ideally, this type of training could be offered without interrupting the production process.

Employer Quote Region
"Employer 1: Your two-year grads, you've got to get them some continuing education for the project management skills and all the other soft skills that they're not getting in school.

Employer 2: Yeah. That's a good point."		 Central
"I think the biggest issue is motivating them to want to get more training and education. We'll support it, but they're like, 'Well, I've already got this job. But, yeah, I want to do better and everything.' Well, it's like, 'Are you willing to make a commitment of another five, six hours a week of your own time to develop your skills?'

Question: When you said you support it, what does your company do?

Employer: You try to negotiate. If they say that they'd really like to take a course, we'll figure out how to give them time off to do that. But, it's like it starts to mess with their personal life, and so I don't know that they really want to invest in the classes—and what I'm saying is for technicians. The people that are in engineering have got four years or more of advanced education, and most of those people understand about career development. For the majority of them, they'll make that investment to move along."		 Central
"For our folks, even math classes would be a big help. Sometimes, if you're talking to a technician and somebody pulls out some numbers that are fractions—one day, when this happened—a technician said to me, 'No, I was never very good with fractions.'" Central
"To speak to the issue of specializing and customizing some of the training, I was part of the group that focused on [MnSCU colleges] re-do of their machine technology in advanced aviation. It was focused on the aviation industry in this region. It included more quality control, programming, and set-up of large production runs versus job shop. But that's available to anyone that has sufficient demand of numbers for the customized training—that they can put something together to focus on one company—to develop a program to serve the needs of your employees. So, if there are big enough numbers, they're certainly open to listening to and including your needs in their training programs. And, too, you could look at a customized training program specifically for your company or your industry, if they would be prepared when they completed the training." Northeast
"I had requested a phone conversation, and I had great involvement from our educational area of this region. And the call included other people from some of the associations. We were talking about looking for an online—or something out there—that is like a canned program where we can say, 'Customize me a package for taking a worker that I want to elevate to another skill set.' That's still lacking some traction, but that may be the way we solve some of those pieces.

I was discussing a press brake operator—we don't have a source—we can't find people coming in that have got that skill set. Our welding programs provide part of that, but—of course—the idea is, 'I'm going to earn $90 an hour as a welder, not $18 an hour as a fabricator in a precision production facility doing press brake operation.'

So, for that need, help me with having access to training packages—that are either done by industry or done by academia—that allow me to take a worker that is already part of our workforce and say, 'If you're interested in this, I will participate in the funding of it to get you trained. Here is the program.' We're too small to provide in-house training for that. And we're too small for a mentoring program because, unfortunately, that staff has been hired away by somebody that can pay more. So, we are a feeder program for a lot of the groups around the area, and we recognize that.

So, now we need to be able to quickly put in place process controls. We're training to get people up to the level that they can produce at the aerospace qualified production level that we attest to be at. And we're going to find that growing requirement when we gain the AAR group, when we get our expansion."		 Northeast
"Going back to our incumbent worker training, if I could have the ear of MnSCU's system, I'd say that identifying a means to make accessible the skill training—that is specific as an online course or as an individualized training program—would be so beneficial to a great number of people. We have identified quality people that need new sets of skills.

And now we need that next level. We need to bring them up with one more piece of education that can help them become a more productive worker. And, unfortunately, we're among the many companies that are too small to do this ourselves—resources and finances being the big item. If I had a place to go where I could say, 'I have this person that needs this skill set taught.' If you can do that, I can provide the environment for that person to be applying those new skills. I can give them a paid work position.

As long as they participate in production in my facility, and earn me money, we can work something like that along. But what we can't do is wait for somebody to spend two years at a technical school to bring back those pieces. When you ask the question, 'What can MnSCU do?' The answer is, 'They can give a much more cafeteria-style training program that's available to the workforce for raising those specific skill sets.'

We need much more specialized training. This can be done with modules on a statewide level or a national level. How the student receives that—whether it's credentials or something else—is not my interest. My interest is making something happen in my facility and elevating my productivity. But education may have a different approach. So, everybody can win if we all get something out of what's going on. Our association has been discussing a means of—how do we fund this?

And our educational trust has a nice little package of pieces, so we could actually help fund some of that in a revolving loan. I trust that there's a hundred different means of finding financing to support that. MnSCU is all about financing. Where do we get the money from? If you can provide us a product, we can provide a funding source, I believe, within all the structures that are out there. We have the customer base, so now what we need is academia to step up and say, 'Here's what we can do. Here are the modules.'"		 Northeast
"Well, there's a little bit on the funding side that—I know we've worked really closely with [MnSCU college] with some grants and things, and that's real positive. But I'll tell you, on the industry side, one of the first things that always gets cut is training. That's one of the bottom-line things. We have to really look at what's cost-effective and reasonable. So, there's got to be some other choices out there that are available for our folks." Northeast
"We're facing some of the same situations as we evolve with our mechanical skills. How do we take a guy who's been working for 25 years and teach him laser alignment, around his rotating shift schedule? We might have to have him work on a weekend or something crazy like that. I mean, we're not to the point of really getting into that, but certainly it's on everybody's mind as we start asking for these additional levels of training, or formal means of training for what used to be a hand-me-down type of approach. That's going to be a big issue. Because we might have 50 people and 12 of them might want or need additional training. But they're all working three or four different shift schedules, and we can't do without 12 of them at the same time, anyway.

So, maybe this guy could go on that Wednesday to learn that skill module, or whatever that is. We can even provide some of the facilities. We talked about using some of the pumps and equipment that our people work on in our shop. Just having some help with the instruction, and getting training as well as some kind of certificate or whatever it ends up being. It's certainly something that is going to be an issue for us in the near future."		 Northeast
"We have very long-tenured employees at our company. The average is about 15 or 16 years. So, with our maintenance department, we've got folks that really have none of the electronic and automated controls background. They're used to older machines where you change the bearings and do those types of things. And now you bring in a new million-dollar machine, and it is 100 percent computer operated with all the bells and whistles. When it goes down, and they're sent to fix it, they don't know where to start. So, we've got various levels of skill sets in our maintenance department. But the ideal world would be if some machine goes down—or there is a call for help—that they can troubleshoot the electronic components, the electrical side of it, as well as the mechanical side of it, and be able to take care of the issue. But a lot of those folks are missing those upper-end skills right now." Northwest
"I think it would be the leadership development, team building, and those kinds of skills. To get the attitude from 'everything is about me,' and instead to see how it fits into the big picture." Northwest
"Having those programs that we need on-site is really helpful. But it is also very, very costly. So, it's good if you can find somebody who comes out of the college to do some of that." Northwest
"You have somebody that has a good IQ, but they've never been exposed to basic computer skills. They get about four weeks into training, and they get extremely frustrated because they can't navigate the system. And, so, that is one thing that we've talked about—how do we continue to spend work time? Sometimes, we spend more work time just helping people navigate computer systems than actually learning to fulfill the roles that they're in." Northwest
"I want to comment to manufacturers that within workforce development there's an increased view of short-term credentials as being a very effective use of public money. And I know that you guys know about fast-track programs, and you've talked about those. That's one way of getting a lower skilled person those short-term credentials to meet the needs of the manufacturer or other employers, and then you can go from there. But that is something that is in the forefront right now." Northwest
"For our entry-level operators, we're finding our biggest hurdle in the skill level is just the candidate being able to complete the application one hundred percent. Some can't even complete the application.

All of our employee resources are online, and our applications are online. We have people that are talking to the mouse and tapping the computer screen or double-clicking the wrong thing. So, at that level, there are two groups. There are those new, young people that are experts at it because they've got a Smartphone, an iPad, and an iPod. But then there are employees that have been at our company for 30 years, and they don't even want to walk within 50 feet of the computer station."		 Northwest
"As a small manufacturer, we don't necessarily have the resources to develop a curriculum of our own or to work with the college in larger groups. What I would like to see is the opportunity to send a small group of individuals, or maybe just one or two individuals, to continuing education types of things. It'd need to happen in a way that it doesn't impact the work day tremendously." Northwest
"I'm a broken record, but Excel is a huge thing for us. Once they're in the business, and they're involved in sales, and they want to move to another department—many of the other areas require macros, pivot tables, just basic Excel skills. And we're bringing [MnSCU college] in to do training on that in increments. The incumbent workforce, once they move into other positions that require business analysis or metrics analysis, they're going to have to use Excel and possibly other tools, too. I know there are other tools, but Excel is kind of the leading one for us." Northwest
"We currently go through the Employer's Association of the Cities, and I've been through several of their training groups. If, locally, we could get that skill here it would be a benefit to all of us." Northwest
"Really quality people, maybe they've been a mail carrier for years, and they retire from that job, and they come over here, and think, 'Well, I've lived in the area for years. I've got a good personality. I can do this.' But they just can't get through the entry path, because they can't navigate on the computer. They get very discouraged. So that is just one profile of an older-than-average candidate. And maybe that's a problem for the older employees than it is for the brand-new out of high school employees. Because we are seeing the computer savvy-ness from the Apple platform coming out of our schools, and this is really good. But I think the middle-aged folks, they've got the IQ, but they just can't navigate. And it just doesn't work well for our environment." Northwest
"I think it's a very important strategic position to take the workers that we have, enhance their skills, and make sure that we can draw that connection into the bottom line of the business. So, how do we increase the efficiency of the work groups? How do we increase the knowledge? How do we create self-directed work groups who can leverage the data and the processes that we provide them in order to make it better? I think there's a significant need for that kind of focused training. I don't mean to be cynical, but having a work group getting a two-year degree with geography and geology being some of the courses might be good for self-development, but I have a hard time linking that to the bottom line of how do increase productivity? How do you improve safety? How do you decrease your defects? So, having some very specific training on worker-based tools, I think, is really critical. I don't see many of those types of classes being offered yet, even though that's a 20-year-old strategy." Southeast
"Proximity is probably an issue. Training programs are primarily in the Twin Cities area." Southeast
"Question: You're talking about taking your assembly workers and then putting them into welding positions. So, if you could put some of them in a class that is already offered, wouldn't you do that?

Employer 1: Yeah, I'd rather have a professional educator do that than have us do that."		 Southeast
"Employer 1: We have a group in our plant that maybe dramatizes that situation when we talk about flexibility. This group is not going on, at least in our plant, to post-secondary education. They've kind of stopped. They're raising families. I don't know what outreach we've done. I think, for us, it's a huge opportunity that we haven't been able to crack.

Question: So, what would be helpful to you? What do you need to do that?

Employer 1: I go back to that flexibility. I don't know the answer—except that I know that after a day of work, after a 12-hour shift—that they're not ready to sit in a classroom for three hours. It might be partly our issue because they're working 12-hour shifts. But there's an opportunity there. At least for many people in this community that might have some other bearings. I don't know if language issues, cultural issues, or other things are preventing them from going into technical colleges.

Question: Is that something you can do entirely—I mean partly with a local institution to figure out a way to build it...

Employer 1: Well, we have. Because there's not an easy entry point from outside into our organization, most of the training we do is on-the-job. We've partnered with [MnSCU college] to come in, but the threshold there is having 12, 18, or 24 people. That's 25 percent of our workforce, so we can't do that."		 Southeast
"Employer 1: It is critical. It is absolutely critical. But companies have to realize that those programs are not necessarily going to give you bottom line return-on-investment numbers that you can crank out. And if a company is paying for customized training, what I see a lot of times, is that they're focused on getting that return-on-investment. So, that's a challenge at times. The other thing we run into is robotics and things like that, absolute CNC training, all those kinds of things. We can do that on a customized basis, but what we run into a lot of times is that this company has different software and a different brand of machine than this other company. So, we really need to find a way to reach enough companies to make a critical mass to make that training work.

And sometimes, you get a roomful of manufacturers, and none of them agree on an area. I spent 25 years in manufacturing, so I know what it's like. You get an area that they agree on, but when you start getting down to specifics, it needs to get more and more customized because every company is different, and everybody's got different equipment and needs.

Question: Why do you need a critical mass?

Employer 1: You need enough people because, otherwise, it is very costly to bring that program in-house for just three employees at a company. So, maybe it's a combination of using some online training for the instructional piece, and then having a hands-on lab type thing."		 Southeast
"Employer 1: I think MnSCU probably looks a lot like it did when we went to school, and I really think it needs to transform itself to be a little more nimble around this stuff, to be a little more flexible. There are some barriers. There's some bureaucracy that people have to work through. These customized training units, I think, they try to be very flexible, but you still run into prerequisites or, 'Gosh, we only offer these classes here, and this is what we do.' Or, 'This instructor can't do that.' And we've got to work with this union group to try to do this. MnSCU, I think, really needs to look inward to see what they can do to be a little more accommodating and flexible to meet the needs of the employers here.

Question: Could you be specific? In terms of your company, what might be helpful?

Employer 1: Yeah. We are a three-shift operation. We might need to deliver classes, and we've done that. We've partnered with [MnSCU college] and they've offered classes on-site. And we now have a small campus in a city that's very near. But we all have different hours and so on. Maybe online might be the way that we go with some of this. You'll probably always run into the issue of how many students would you have in that program? Three? Five? Maybe six? You may need 18 students to run a program efficiently. But employers still need those people—just because there aren't 20 students to fill the class—employers still have the need to have those five or six trained."		 Southeast
"I think flexibility is key. At our company, we have two levels. One's an operator level, and the other is technician. The operators are a lot easier to find—easier to come in at the entry-level. A lot of them are high school graduates, but for them to make that next step requires some additional education. Some are just not excited to take classes. We offer continuing education. The hours don't match up perfectly. It's a hindrance for the times programs are offered. If we're trying to make it incredibly easy to do the program around industrial maintenance, it would be about a three-hour program. You can take one as you wish; so, you wouldn't have to be a full-time student. You wouldn't have to commit to a certificate program. You can go in and out. There's flexibility." Southeast
"Employer 1: We are trying to find some creative ways on how to do future training. If we can bring in somebody from either a local community college to help improve the skills of our machinists—who are being asked to do things they've never had exposure to before, or that they just don't know. I mean, they are not interested in going to a program.

Employer 2: Like going to school after work.

Employer 1: They need to be trained, but they also have to work. So what do we do in the meantime? Because the skills they do have are valuable, so we don't want to throw the baby out with the bathwater."		 Southwest
"Our struggle is how do you keep production running while also training the workers who are essential to the production process? I thought it was a really interesting idea to have somebody that's—maybe it's your person that knows how to run this or was the expert in that—teaching everybody else. I'm thinking, 'How could I get those people off the machine for a day?' That's our struggle." Southwest
"Employer 1: There probably will be a need for a third or a fourth year of education for each employee. That's my gut feeling—that there's going to be a need for that type of stuff. You know those 18-month certificates or diplomas in basic machining? And how they can specialize in milling, multi-access turning, multi-access millings, or Swiss machining? Those are going to be the higher specialized things that are going to be needed as far as machining goes.

Employer 2: So, they come in at 18 months. Are they going to come work for you, and then decide what to do?

Employer 1: Right. That's what I would like to do. I would like to hire them, and then send them back—whether to day classes, night classes, or online classes. We're really trying to put together something within our company that does that—where the schools are a big part of it. So, part of it will be internal and it will be online. I don't think there's any one magic bullet that's going to fix this."		 Southwest
"The most important thing I learned in college was how to teach myself. But I don't think that that's what everybody is learning 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. I see it when I try to build maintenance programs. I've got a bunch of guys who can go out there and turn wrenches on what we have right now, but I'm looking at the next generation of Dutch engineering and 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—help me anyway—is teaching them how to learn, rather than just how to check the box. Because I see a lot of check-the-box education." Southwest
"I need a nine-month certificate. As soon as you can get that nine-month certificate out there, I'll be more than happy to just hook a pipeline from the back door of your college right to the front door of my company. I'd be more than happy to." Southwest