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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
"Our key difficulty is getting enough interested kids and returning adult students into that pipeline. And, finding folks who have the capability to handle the basic trigonometry and some of the other pieces that are involved in that program." Northwest
"Employer 1: Candidates need better math skills.

Employer 2: It's a big problem.

Employer 3: Huge.

Employer 1: Understanding trig, math, and geometry. It's a huge problem that more candidates don't have those skills.

Employer 2: Coming from the welding side, that's what we're finding as our students come in—that we're having to teach them the basic math and how to read a tape measure before we can take them into the actual trade side of it. So, this goes back to why the high school is not putting out this math? Why aren't candidates understanding the math before they come to us? They should have learned this already. I mean, I'm talking simple stuff like adding fractions or converting fractions to a decimal. Basic stuff that a sixth-grader could do. And we get them in from high school and they can't do that."		 Northwest
"Employer 1: I'm concerned that when we've got kids that are very good in math—because we're stressing that in our high schools—that they're the kids that are going to be the higher learners or the academics rather than the machinists, the CNCs, and the hands-on welders. In the old days, the hands-on group didn't need the technology degree that they need now. Our equipment has changed. So, the mindset of those kids needs to change in school. We need to somehow let our youth know that it's going to be a higher requirement on this side because of the technological advances we've made. That's our biggest struggle and our biggest gap right now.

Employer 2: You can no longer go into machining as a way to avoid math."		 Northwest
"Some of them don't have any math skills at all. Some can't even write." Northwest