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Employer Quotes

The quotes below are from employers in this industry: Manufacturing

They are talking about this topic: Educational Partnerships

 

The quotes below are about this issue:
Many employers are currently involved in internship programs through high schools or local colleges. Employers would like to see more candidates who have internship or workplace-based experience. Many employers are interested in partnering with MnSCU to create stronger partnerships in this area.

Employer Quote Region
"I think one of the things we're pushing is more workplace-based experiences for students. That could be on the spectrum of job-shadowing to internships. We're looking hard at apprenticeships again. There's a renaissance around that, and that's not going to be an easy thing to do, but we're pushing hard on that to try to make that happen. Yeah, I think they need exposure to practical experiences within the workplace. Without workplace-based experiences, they don't understand." Central
"Employer 1: From what I've seen, I think that the students need to be more involved, whether it's being a student-worker or something that's more involved with the school. I don't know if there are programs where the students can get more involved—rather than them just coming in, doing their criteria for that class, and then heading out. Something that can get them more involved. I think that's a main factor—internships within companies.

Employer 2: Something like students working jobs on multiple shifts that familiarize them with the workforce while they're still in school. And it's a good screening opportunity for the employer.

Employer 1: Yes. And it gives the employer a chance to assess that student's soft skills right away."
Northeast
"We talked about technical skills from a small business perspective, for example, IT skills. We're not in a position where our company can afford to hire a full-time IT programmer, an IT support person, whatever. We've learned to wear multiple hats in our company. But what we need to do is develop some way to partner with [MnSCU college] and other MnSCU systems so that we can tap into graduates coming out on a part-time or an internship basis—or some other basis—where we can both benefit. Where we can have a mutual relationship that is cost-effective and utilizes resources. We were looking at an opportunity, but we couldn't tap into it because the lab was closed during the summer and we couldn't use the resources. There has to be a partnership established for the benefit of both the students and the businesses in the area. We could have had a potential position there. We took a different course of action because we couldn't work it out." Northeast
"That's where our group comes in. There are manufacturers in the Fabricating Association. We're 85 members strong. We not only take students into the program—through machine tooling—in the middle schools and high schools and MnSCU, but we also we work very closely with all of the MnSCU colleges, from the Iron Range to northern Wisconsin." Northeast
"I wanted to talk about a relationship that we're trying to create with a college. We had been in discussion about working with them on internships because it would be nice to get students to understand—before they even go out looking for a job—what it entails. Without an internship, students often don't realize the labor intensity of things. So, being able to work with a college to create an internship program would be helpful. When you're older, you're an operator, you're a mechanic, you're working with hydraulics. So, you're putting all those skills into use. But, figuring out when you're younger, is that 12-hour shift with minimal supervision something that's going to be right for me? So, I think continuing to partner with a school to create internships is important—to see on both sides. The internship lets the employer ask, 'Does this student, as an employee, offer what we are looking for?' And the student gets to ask, 'Is this really the type of job that I want to get into?'" Northeast
"Question: Are there barriers to the internships? And are the interns largely in certificate programs or are they in high school? Also, I was curious if any of you link math skills—that you say are lacking—as a condition of an internship?

R: The college was working with the NCRC, the National Career Readiness Certificate, so we knew that they had some math skills because they passed that test. I don't know if they chose those people because they were here or if they're putting everybody through. But the four interns that we hired have all taken the NCRC testing, so I had a basic knowledge of what skills they have. So, yeah, everybody in the welding program has gone through that. At the high school level it is a specific curriculum, and we want to make sure that they have those classes or that they are taking those classes. And while they're going through the program, which is a two-year program, we want to make sure that they will get into trig eventually."
Northwest
"I'd like to see more of an emphasis on the internships so that these kids understand what they might see out there. Of course, that takes cooperation from us in the industry as well. I think a lot of students don't really get a feel for the types of jobs that we're doing." Northwest
"Employer 1: When folks come out of even the one-year program for welding, they really have absolutely no clue what they're getting into when they get into the workforce. They've been on video games, they've welded in a controlled environment; then, they come in here and I want them to stand on their head holding that welding rod with their left hand with their eyes closed because that's what a job requires. So, when they come to us, they don't really have an understanding of what they're getting into.

Question: Everyone's raised this issue of internships or apprenticeships, and I think the employers have to be willing partners. So, is that currently going on? Are there more of these taking place?

Employer 1: Yeah. And we're pretty flexible to meet their schedule.

Employer 2: Yes. And I always tell them when they come in, school is first. We have four apprentices, interns, whatever you want to call them. It's new for us. We just started last fall. And I'll tell you, when they come in, it's a little bit of a shock both for them and our people—saying that they don't know anything. It's costing us more time to teach them. What are we doing it for? Well, over time they kind of fit in, and our hope is that they come on full-time.

Question: So, the sooner you expose them to the real work environment the better off it is for everyone?

Employer 2: Yeah."
Northwest
"If students have internships while going to school that would help us greatly in terms of them having the on-the-job experience piece." Northwest
"There is some terminology in the internship thing that I don't really care for—for instance, things like we have to talk to MnSCU before we could terminate the internship. No. If a guy comes in and violates any of our company policies, we'll terminate him immediately. Safety is important to us. So, anyway, if they wash out in the practical application part of the program, they don't get the certificate." Southeast
"The fact that they actually did the internship with an employer is a good test because you can see if they will fit with you. But, in a lot of cases, there is no internship so all you have is their grades. They may have gotten a 'B' in something, but that doesn't necessarily mean they can do it. That's true in high school, too, right? I mean, you graduate from high school and—from what we see—that doesn't mean you know math, right? So, if they have some sort of relationship with an employer it helps us determine whether they actually learned what they're supposed to learn." Southeast
"We're terrified about retirements. Quite frankly, I don't know where the next five production workers are going to come from. I've told the owners of this company that this is probably the most pressing thing facing us.

We have a program where the students at [MnSCU college], for example, can come and spend an afternoon at our company and we pay them. We've almost got to pay them because they've got to have some money to keep this all going. They walk the floor with our engineers and our maintenance people, and they see the challenging work environment. They see the problem-solving work environment.

I don't know how—one of the things I was afraid of here—we kind of threw this problem over the wall to the educators and said, 'Here, fix this.' But I'm not so sure this doesn't have to be a very tight partnership beyond us throwing the stuff over the wall and expecting the educators to solve it."
Southwest
"Let me tell you what [out-of-state college] is already doing with a dairy production management course. The first year in that class—it's a three-credit class—they have to work for two hours a week on the floor in a dairy production facility milking cows. I mean, how degrading is that in some people's minds? 'Oh, I have to milk cows!' But, in my mind, that makes perfect sense because that's the technology that they're going to be running someday. So, you start on the floor and you work your way up. The second year that they're in that program, they become a supervisor of the people milking the cows. So, they learn leadership. There's so little leadership taught these days. I to try to glean as many leaders out of the military as I can because they've learned leadership just through osmosis. They've had to. But this program has a leadership piece built right into it. And the next year they come in and start doing CAD backs. So, 'How do I put a machine in that's going to help automate or improve this process?' And then there's a capstone event for that particular program—actually running the facility for a couple of weeks. I mean, you want to talk about starting at the bottom and working your way up within the university setting? It's the most brilliant thing I've ever heard of as far as what an educational system can offer." Southwest
"This goes back for the last 20 years. I'm from [MnSCU college]; I graduated from that school. And my father actually was a machine tool instructor there for 32 years before he retired. But what worked really good for me—and not just for me but for our industry—was exactly what the other respondent suggested—we'd go out there every year and we'd try to take one or two people out of the class and then we would continue their education after they got to work for us. We'd get good candidates. So, I think the vocational part of it—the vocational education—was really important for a lot of our manufacturing companies. But we, as an industry, have to realize that that's not going to give us everything we need. And that's why we want to start working into an apprenticeship program. It would give students some structure while learning.

What we've always done—and what I've done for 20 years—is we take each young person and we pair them up with one of the more experienced machinists. And they shadow them. And if the young person was good and ambitious and wanted to learn, then they'd learn and it'd work out great. But it doesn't always work if the candidate just wants a job to make money. So, we're trying to get some more structure so we can kind of see where they go.

The vocational education really worked good, and we used to be able to get enough people into these programs. But Granite Falls had to close their machine tool program for lack of enrollment. They'd been struggling for years. As a system, they didn't really adapt too well because their feeder system used to be farm kids from southwestern Minnesota and South Dakota. As family farms shrank, so did their pool of candidates. And nothing was really ever done to overcome that. Yeah, you've got to change the model to adapt. Because the old model worked really well, but then—take out the pool of candidates—and it just failed. So, I think what we ought to do as industry is help these people fill up the pool of candidates again. Because, when we have candidates going into these programs, everything tends to roll along pretty good."
Southwest
"With some of the people that are new in the field, they're excited to learn. 'Show me this machine, that machine, whichever one you want me to learn.' Where some of my long-tenured employees are like, 'No, this is the machine I've been working on the last 20 years, so don't make me move.'

We actually need the practical experience. Whether that means more programs like the Right Skills Now program where it's mandatory—it's part of the program that they have so many hours working on it—I think that's helpful for the student. It means they have practical experience that they can bring to us. Normally, the only other way you would do that is if you go through an internship program, which we do with four-year students.

But this is really an internship, and we're hoping that if it works out, we will have full-time employees. But, again, we really do need a higher level of practical experience, but we're just not finding that. So, if we develop a program where some of those students come on-site so that we can give them some of that practical experience, then that might work, too."
Southwest
"There are seven high school students, this spring semester, in different shops throughout Mankato. Five of the seven are going to stay on for summer employment. One of them is being scooped up for a night shift at forty some hours per week, and they're boosting him up to $16.85 an hour or something like that. So, it's five of the seven for the summer." Southwest