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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
"I think we do a good job of preparing kids for college, but we don't do as good of a job of preparing those that want to use their hands. What we see is a lot of younger students that come in that—they're not in touch with mechanical—just basic building things. I don't know if that's part of this assessment, but that might be a gap. Also, in the machine tool side, we do a lot of grinding and finishing operations. I've been into a lot of tech schools, and they have lot of lathes and mills but they don't have as many grinding—I would say modern grinding equipment. So, that might be something that could be looked into as well." Metro
"We need to step back a little bit further and go back into the high schools and the middle schools and talk about manufacturing and production careers." Metro
"I think the biggest problem we have is keeping students in the program. Because there is a demand out there, and once they get to a certain level skill, they bail out of the program. And, if they lose the job that they quit school for, then they can't get employment. Most of them are coming because they're getting trained because they're out of work or they're displaced from work." Metro
"I saw some papers from 20 years ago where they were talking about how they've got to get more kids into manufacturing. They think manufacturing is a dirty job. It's 20 years later, and we're still saying the same thing. But how much has happened in this lifetime? So, we need to get working on this and figure out how we get students excited about these positions—which I will assume are pretty decent paying jobs and usually with good benefits." Metro
"I think it's got to go all the way back to the high school and maybe even before that. But, it's got to go back to the high schools where people look ahead and see the opportunity for those jobs and say, 'Hey, I want to do that.' They have to be given the direction to go into that as a career, so that—by the time they get to you—they're already on that path. So, whatever MnSCU can do to promote that at the high school level—an aptitude test or some sort of test that pushes people into that direction—then I think you got a chance to really take those people and turn them into good, solid workers for manufacturing. And then we can talk about more specifically about some of the specific needs that we have.

Question: So, MNSCU should get more involved before the students get to the secondary?

Employer: Yeah. I think you've got to pay it forward."		 Metro
"I would say that businesses in the community should also be getting involved with the high schools. Inviting those counselors into our facility, we're doing that right now. Inviting high school counselors and tech education teachers to tour our facility and see what we do. We know the counselors and the teachers are really the ones that are directing students into career paths. So, if counselors in high schools have no idea what's out there in manufacturing, they don't know how to put them in that direction. They can have a kid that's very mechanically-inclined, but if business doesn't have the opportunity to say, 'You're a kid that is mechanically inclined, so look what we do—you'd be a great fit for our industry. This is what we do.' So, we're willing to come out there. We can go to your school. We can show some of the parts we make. We can talk about it and answer questions. It gets them excited about it. They know that there are businesses here, locally, that are doing these things and making these really great things. And, hopefully, they will be able to get a job in the industry, and go through the tech school. So I agree that MnSCU has to get more involved, but I think businesses will need to join forces, so we can do it together." Metro
"These younger kids need to be told that they can be a welder for 45 years. Or that they can go through these programs through initiatives from MnSCU. And then, obviously, employers need to add the soft skills down the road and support them.

Question: So, instead of MnSCU maybe promoting just a silo of something, there's going to be different pathways along the way for advancement?

Employer: Yeah, I have two degrees from the United States. My origin is from India. The degrees that I took—I was sent to a placement office—but I wasn't told that five years from now you can do this or 10 years from now you can do that, and so on and so forth. That needs to be promoted early on. STEM's out there. Project Lead The Way is out there, but those are the grass root efforts. When somebody enters your program, they need to see the light at the end of the tunnel so they don't quit, saying, 'Oh, there is a job—I need to quit right now because that job is going to get me my current earnings.'"		 Metro
"I think one of the opportunities for manufacturing right now is the change towards more robotics. And there are a lot of young people who think that's really exciting—that there's going to be more and more robotics. I think we need to let young people know that that's what's going on in manufacturing. They may find themselves totally interested in robotics. If there is more robotics, obviously, there will be more jobs doing that type of work. So, just showing these young people that you don't have to just be an engineer, or just a production machine person, or just be a welder, but if you learn some of these skill sets—along with some other things—you can move your way up through the industry. Someday, you might own or run an operation. Or you might be the head salesperson or the head quality manager, etcetera. I like that idea." Metro