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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:
Some employers mention hiring machine operators and others without fundamental technical skills because of an inadequate labor supply. They would also like to see an increase in the technical skills of those coming in with four-year degrees as well.

Employer Quote Region
"I'd recommend more hands-on skills for those four-year degree folks. Because I was in industrial/technical back in the 70s, and we had more hands-on experiences back then. And my nephew just graduated from the same school, and he didn't have anywhere near the hands-on experience that I did. Even in a four-year college, they got rid of the welding course in agricultural engineering." Central
"I've been in manufacturing engineering for over 30 years, and what I've seen is that my two-year degree people can only get to a certain level because they don't have soft skills. So, I could go to [MnSCU college] and pick up a manufacturer engineer. They've got all those soft skills. They can do project management. They can plan safe innovative thinking and everything else, but they don't know the technical side. They've only skimmed it in school. And they don't know how to square block. They don't know how to make a lathe tool out of a high speed steel block like I learned when I was maybe in middle school. So, what we did at our company, which was good, is that anybody who started—and they all had their two-year degrees on the floor—if anybody jumped into a four-year degree, we'd bring them in the office and say, 'Good!' That was their chance for promotion, getting that four-year degree. But you couldn't get that two-year degree to advance. They needed the soft skills. They just don't have them. So how do we combine those—teaching both the technical skills and the soft skills?" Central
"Another employer talked about the high bar there is as far as the technology level being much stronger today. One of my past jobs, I worked at a machine fabrication shop, and there were some folks coming out of technical college that tried to run the machines. We did not have the most current equipment, but it was good equipment, but they didn't understand the fundamentals. They could put a piece in, and they could hit the button, but beyond that, they didn't have a real understanding of what was going on with the machine process. And so that's kind of true with everybody else, with some of the fundamental pieces, learning how to machine. There was a machinist with 30 years of experience and he said, 'He is running it too fast. He's going to break the tool.' And sure enough, he broke the tool. He just didn't understand it." Central