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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

 

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The quotes below are about this issue:
Employers emphasize the need for new hires that have strong mathematical abilities; levels of skill needed vary by position, but range from algebra to trigonometry. Many employers need to send new employees to remedial math courses. Similarly, although mentioned less frequently, some employers feel that reading and writing skills are lacking in new hires as well.

Employer Quote Region
"Employer 1: Two things to add for the colleges who are here: Employees need to be able to read a ruler and be able to measure with a ruler, very basic. I was at a high school just the other day—or junior high—and they said that they all learned that in the second grade. But even the basic things with the ruler today are not what they used to be. People are not able to read a ruler and people cannot convert decimals to fractions. So, very interesting things that we notice.

Employer 2: Long division, they can't do it.

Employer 2: We have heard that math skills, basic math skills, are a really big deal. I think it's 40 percent of the kids coming in need some remedial help in math and reading. So, that is clearly an issue. We continue to hear it—particularly in the manufacturing industry—but in other areas as well. Basic math."		 Central
"Years ago, when I was in high school—and I'm sure employees of mine that are in that age range would say the same thing—we learned how to do geometry and trigonometry. And people in sheet metal have to be able to do trigonometry. And I think—maybe they're looking at a ruler, and some don't know how to use a ruler. If you work on a press brake or something like that, you have to know how to do trigonometry. I'm sure you can do it on a calculator, if you use a cheat sheet, but it's not what we learned in high school. And the kids nowadays—I don't know if they're not learning it or if they're not getting it—because it just really seems to be a struggle. So, we have to teach people that." Central
"Even as far as some of the basics, reading the ruler and things like that. Some of the folks over here might not need that training, but they might help develop the training program to support an operation or working with individuals to try and teach them. So, it's a different support role." Central