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Employer Quotes

The quotes below are from employers in this industry: Manufacturing

They are talking about this topic: Educational Partnerships

 

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The quotes below are about this issue:
Many businesses are already collaborating with MnSCU; for instance, some business representatives are active on advisory boards and in associations. Employers emphasize the importance of continuing these collaborations, enhancing communication, and partnering more frequently to develop curriculum and other solutions.

Employer Quote Region
"One concern that I have is that I've heard from a number of different sources—and we've had some experience with it personally—is that often times at meetings like this some of the really big companies in the state, that are in manufacturing, aren't at the table. They're not participating. It concerns me because I think that they have a significant presence. All the big [company] manufacturers, for example, in Minnesota are my customers. And I'd really like to figure out how we can get them to participate more. But also an economist that I know, the chief economist for the Fabricators and Manufacturers Association—and I've seen this elsewhere—is that often times those big companies are looking at small companies like mine, as the training ground for their future employees. I can understand that, but it would be helpful if there's a way to engage more with both the schools and smaller employers and the bigger employers to really discuss—if that's what the model is—how can we all benefit from that? Rather than me doing all this work with customized training and on-the-job training, and then the big companies of the world looking at my employees and thinking that they should hire them." Central
"You have to have the meetings more often and be accessible. I mean, it's a matter of catching up with—I mean, who are the people that count?" Central
"Here in St. Cloud, we are working well with the schools' advisory groups. They meet frequently. They address the issues that we're talking about here. They work to try to tailor the classes so that we're getting the kinds of people we need. And then, when we meet with the schools as a group, there's a bigger cross-section of people, and they'll hear many things over and over. And they'll also hear some separate issues that other people are having. It's been working that way well for us all these years." Central
"What we're doing is talking with the colleges and businesses. And we're looking at the available resources, and we're participating in these types of events to stay current and to keep those lines of communication open." Northeast
"Actually, MnSCU could help us by reacting faster. Somehow, the educational system has to react a little quicker to these job openings. All of a sudden, there are 3,000 openings for a job and the education for that job doesn't really exist." Northeast
"Participate in the opportunities presented by the MnSCU organization. Because they're open to listening to any need that the community has. I know, I've experienced it over the last 10 years when voicing concerns and discussing the shortages that we, as an industry, have had. And they've addressed that issue somewhat." Northeast
"Line of communication. Somebody's got to be talking to somebody. Get the word out." Northeast
"I'm struck that we all have our individual needs—and we're all working on those—but, in aggregate, the collaborative need is for all of us in the industry to be partnering with the institutions. We've got some really innovative things going on up here as you recognize." Northeast
"We've been working with Northeast Minnesota Higher Education. There are five schools bordering on the Range that represent the iron mining industry. We've been working for the last five years very closely with them. We've been defining exactly what we need in those classes; therefore, their students immediately get hired because the businesses have a very high need for employees right now. When I first got this job about five years ago, every school wanted to do all of the programs. We finally got together with a key stakeholder who heads up that consortium, and each school picked different things to focus on. So, we could really focus on exactly what we needed. We actually met in January with the professors. We brought them to the mines and said, 'This is what you're missing.' It's been great." Northeast
"There are enough mines up there that they got together and they worked as a team to collaborate with the schools. I don't know if there's anything that's happening like that down here? Where we could get together, come up with a curriculum, and then work with the colleges in the area to fulfill those needs? To say what we all need in this area for our industry? I mean, the example of these businesses working together and joining forces is great." Northeast
"There are manufacturers in the Fabricating Association. We're 85 members strong. We take students into the program—through machine tooling—in the middle schools, and high schools, and MnSCU. We also work very closely with all of the MnSCU colleges, from the Iron Range to northern Wisconsin. It's a very slow process, but it's becoming quite effective right now. That's partly why we're involved in this focus group—we've got quite a few members here that are involved in this, so we're doing something about it." Northeast
"Come to the table and discuss these issues because that's where we're going to keep figuring this out. All of us, regionally or locally, need to address these issues because I think it's very clear that there's not a silver bullet coming from somewhere else to save us. There are 600,000 unfilled manufacturing jobs in this country today. So, this is not necessarily unique to us. And there's a tremendous amount of competition. Anyway, come to the table as you hear about these things, so we can look at our own region and decide what we're going to do to drive people into these jobs." Southeast
"MnSCU's not going to ride in on some horse and solve this. That ain't going to happen. Although I think they would be great partners moving forward and we need them. And I don't know what goes on at the National Association of Manufacturers, but I'd take a look at that, too. I agree that we have to look at these issues locally." Southeast
"It's the regions that figure this out. If you wait for someone to figure this out for you, it will never happen. So, if you think about the healthcare industry—you remember that several years ago there were no nurses, no nurses, no nurses. But we're good on nurses now, for the most part. I think it's regions that come together and figure this out for their own region as opposed to waiting for the state or DEED or someone else to do it for you." Southeast
"The kinds of things that are going to impact the bottom-line are just what you mentioned: the Kaizen, the Lean Six, the Lean Principal—those kinds of things. And I don't know that MnSCU or higher education can effectively teach those because they're not dealing with the stuff that we deal with every day. And when you talk about partnering up, nothing would be more awesome than for MnSCU to send people to participate in one of our events so that they learn how we do it.

Question: So, more cooperation?

Employer: Yes. Those are the kinds of skills that are going to produce a bottom-line impact and make people more valuable on our force."		 Southeast
"Yes. Promoting together, working together. Quit fighting each other for the available workforce. That's what we're trying to promote in the southeastern area of Minnesota—to start working together as a community for what we all need because it's going to affect all of us long-term. If we don't start working together as a group, none of us are going to experience the kind of growth that we have the opportunity to experience in this current market." Southeast
"That's something I'm very interested in—joining partnerships and understanding the different programs. And I think we could have a very powerful local strategy on how we improve and enhance the workers that we already have, and then to also have some kind of curriculum that we can hand-off to the local schools.

Question: To help develop them?

Employer: So that when we receive the workforce, we're not starting from zero."		 Southeast
"I think that in businesses, we get tied up with our everyday jobs, so I encourage more of an ongoing conversation with schools. And I encourage you to come back and challenge us because, as companies, we do have resources, we do have people. And maybe it should be more of a partnership in a continuing conversation, rather than just a periodic conversation with regard to these types of issues. Challenge us. Ask us, 'How can we get our students into your company to actually talk to the people who work there and have experience there?' And invite people from our company into your classroom. I think that would open up a lot of doors, and it would help us to have a more continuous conversation." Southeast
"It's a fairly new process that we're going to start doing. What I'm going to be doing is working to develop rapport and relationships with the different institutions. I'll find out what their program are, and what skill sets are coming out of there—both from the manufacturing standpoint and the higher education standpoint. And then seeing where we can develop some of those partnerships. Maybe it's apprenticeships that we do in conjunction with the school, or maybe it's us talking with our executive team about how we may need to be some type of financial contributor to those programs. It's starting to get a handle on that now versus waiting five years and then having to scramble." Southwest