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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 employers speak of the need for businesses and educational institutions to work with K-12 institutions to educate children about the manufacturing industry and related career opportunities. It would also be beneficial to educate guidance counselors and parents about the manufacturing industry to further enhance the possibility that youth consider manufacturing employment opportunities.

Employer Quote Region
"Guidance counselors have such an influence over students and what students choose to do. And guidance counselors tend to think about manufacturers the same way that parents do. So, we need to figure out a way to get them exposed to our manufacturing environments so that they can give children a different perspective. If they had another perspective, they might not just drive students toward college, but may encourage them to consider technical school." Central
"I was going to say—even beyond the capacity of the secondary training or secondary education—how are we going to feed those programs? That goes back to the high schools. How are we getting kids interested in those types of fields? I don't think we can lose track of that.

And our conversation has often drifted back to entry-level positions because we can't find the skilled people that we need. So, we need to focus on how we take entry-level people and take them where we need them to go. And, there are two pieces of that at the high school level. One is: How are the high schools turning out entry-level people that can come to us and be successful and help us be successful? And, then, also: Are their eyes open to the opportunities that are available? So, I think that's an important link. I mean, we can have all the capacity in the world, but if we're not developing a way to open kids' eyes—if we're cutting all the programs that give kids the opportunity to explore their options—then they're never going to take that next step."		 Central
"We have entry-level positions, production machinists, but the problem I hear about is the labor rate. Because people say, 'Oh, this isn't providing affordable wages,' or whatever the case may be. If only people could understand what it costs a company to train people. Our entry-level production machinists start at $10.50 to $11.00 an hour. These are people coming in with no experience in machining whatsoever. But their level of advancement, their level of increase in their wage, is far superior to most other jobs that are out there. People have to understand that when people come into the industry and they're learning their job—and they're learning on our time—it costs us about $40,000 to train these people over time. It's a big picture approach. People need to better understand that approach when companies are doing that. They need to understand that it's a fast-track process to get them up to a skill level where they're actually producing and making money for the company and that—in the end—they'll be able to get a better wage. So, there is some give and take. We have people that are switching their careers when they're 30 years old. We do have people who are doing that." Central
"I have been at a number of meetings with counselors and with technical education instructors throughout the state. And I have to tell you that there is one school district in Minnesota that—if a student says that they don't want to go to a four-year college—they're dropped from the counseling services." Central
"How are high school students challenged or informed about these kinds of opportunities? I'm thinking about high school students who are maybe stressed or, for some reason, don't see the value of finishing their high school education. I'm wondering if these opportunities are presented anywhere in the high schools, you know? Because, you can't afford to have these students falling off. And the opportunities and possibilities are exciting." Central
"With CNC, we kind of missed that two-year gap. So, what's happening now is we just need to find people. Now, people are moving from job to job for more money, so you're seeing puddle-jumpers a lot more." Central
"I believe that's why you see the big jump in robotics, just because of a lack of skills. People don't want to do this type of work anymore." Central
"I think it's also the high school funnel. There seems to be more of an expectation of kids going on to a four-year college than to trade school." Central
"There's another issue relative to the secondary education, which is that we see an ever-increasing trend at the secondary level—with resources and finances more than anything—that they are dropping their career and technical education coursework. Dropping all areas of career and technical education. That, then, diminishes the opportunity for kids to explore and see if they might be interested in this field. They're not exposed to it as they used to be." Central
"Other influencers are businesses. So, if we go to the local school board meetings and say, 'Look, our company is in your area. We pay taxes to this city. You need to recognize that the programs you're considering dropping or have cut directly impact our ability to hire people from this area to stay working in this area.' So, we need to go to the administrators and say, 'Hey, I am one of your customers.'" Central
"People need more exposure to who we are, what we do, and what the opportunities are. They don't understand. Parents don't understand. High school counselors, I think, are beginning to understand because we've been hammering pretty hard on that. But it's important that there's exposure because I think that the average parent, who might be 45-years-old, of high school kids may believe that the manufacturing environment is still a smoky, dangerous, ankle-deep-in-oil type of a situation. They don't understand that it's very, very high-tech now. You can wear a white shirt and pressed trousers in a lot of shops. We need to get that message across." Central
"I always ask of our new hires, especially in welding, what got them interested in welding? And there are two answers. One is that it's family-related—their grandfather had a welding machine or their uncle was a welder—there's something in that sense. The other big one is that they took a class in high school in industrial arts. And those things are disappearing. So, they learned how to do a whole bunch of things with their hands and found out, you now, this is really fun and it's interesting. And from that, they branched off into some kind of livelihood." Central