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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
"Well, 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—but we also work very closely with all of the MnSCU colleges, from the Iron Range to northern Wisconsin. It's a very slow process, but it's becoming quite effective right now." Northeast
"Part of the thing that we're recognizing is that so many high school students have been pushed toward college, college, college. And that the technical skill development—like multi-craft or welding or something like that—just hasn't been promoted. And so now they're starting to partner more with industry. I know one place where they're looking at re-instating vocational training at the high schools in conjunction with area colleges because those skills have not been promoted for a long, long time." Northeast
"It starts early. I recently participated in a program, City of Duluth. The Chamber of Commerce had CEOs in the classroom. And we spoke to eighth-graders about preparing, not only for college, but a work career. And we explained the things they need to be thinking about in terms of team-building and in terms of how they develop relationships that are going to carry them into the workplace. We talked about how they can groom themselves for success, and the things they need to be thinking about when they're 13 and 14, and getting along in the world and being successful. We need more of that kind of real life experience awareness from people other than the teachers, because the students seem to believe it more from someone they don't see every day. I think it was a very successful program, and we're going to continue it every year, I understand." Northeast
"One of the things we've done on the Range is what's called applied learning. So, we're actually in the high school. High school students can work on a two-year degree program. We work very closely with the superintendents, with MnSCU, and all the industries to develop these programs. And what we have found, working with them is that—while we've been focusing on ninth-grade because we've been doing some career work—that we're actually going to have to go down to the sixth-grade level to start getting them ready for the idea. This is coming from the superintendents.

The best example I'll give, I love that it's a smaller school. It's Silver Bay. It just opened up, and part of a community college is right in their high school. Because they still had the equipment—they didn't get rid of it—for their industrial education programs. Boy, that's going to help that North Shore area, because we really have trouble drawing people up along there."		 Northeast
"Right now, it's national and statewide, and we'll be reducing the current technical courses and programs, and that's really going to have a big impact, I believe, in workforce development in the future. You don't have students who are developing those interests and skills because they're not exposed to them. I would advocate that you need to really start looking at the lower grade levels, middle school, and high school, and advocate curriculum changes." Northeast
"I think one of the biggest things we've got to do is figure out how to support programs like that so we can reach down as deep and as early into schools as possible and grab the kids attention across these industrial classifications, across the engineering, across the sciences. The bigger the pull that is, the easier it's going to be. Once we've got people trained and ready, then we'll slug it out amongst each other as to who gets them." Northeast
"We need to figure out how to partner with each other, and how to support these institutions to reach down and get more kids to consider these types of jobs." Northeast
"We recognize that with budget cuts and declining enrollments, many of our industrial technology programs at the high school level were really swept out the door, and so we brought that back now. It's collaboration between the IRRRB, our business and industry partners, the Northeast Higher Education District, and 21 of our local high schools. So, students can take industrial technology type classes in the high school and get college credit. And I believe we've seen about a 75 percent increase in enrollment in our technical programs from 2004 to 2011. But the dinner table conversation that we talk about is really critical, and our industry partners have helped us out with that, too. Because when parents start to talk to their children about education, they say, 'You're going to go to college,' and we need to help them define what that means. Because, in their mind, that's four years somewhere else. And maybe they come back, and if they do come back with that four-year degree, do we have a job for them? Because the recent Georgetown study that you've probably all read, indicates that about 70 percent of the jobs in our state—and that's probably even higher in northeastern Minnesota—are going to require some post-secondary training. It might not be that four-year degree, but at least some sort of certification or diploma after that. And so I think we've done a better job than many rural regions in engaging our families in discussions. And we're allowing students to experience some of those technical trades, at the high school level, so that they have an opportunity to pursue them if they choose." Northeast