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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
"Employer: The problem comes from the fact that enrollment in the classes is so low. You can't justify running the programs because the enrollment's too low.

Question: So, demand is high, but the enrollment is low?

Employer: Enrollment is typically low. I'm talking about over the last 10 years, not the last three years. Well, there are more students. We have 19 students in the Right Skills Now program and another 19 in North Mankato and another 19, I think, in [lost in transcription]. That's a lot of students that typically wouldn't have been there, but when they get out of there, that's just the start of their education—they'll come in and run the machine. They can load parts and unload parts, but that's all they're going to be able to do. We're going to have to train them from that point on, which takes a lot of time. So, you go back to school, and hopefully there will be a program that they can go to. And hopefully the employers don't just scoop them out of the Right Skills Now and don't allow them to go to school."		 Southeast
"MnSCU also needs a feeder system from the middle schools and the high schools. It doesn't start at MNSCU. If we don't have a feeder system to feed into, that's part of the problem, I think. MNSCU can't do it by themselves. It's got to be further upstream." Southeast
"I think we need to go all the way back to the high schools and elementary schools as far as exposure to our industry, but I think one thing with high schools is they really have their hands tied. There are so many requirements for high school graduation; requirements that comes from the state level. But also—matching that—is what four-year colleges are requiring for entrance. That's really limiting options as far as what students can take for their elective classes in most colleges. So, even if you do have a high school that has a strong trade program—or even wants to put a trade back into it—if they're not going to have sections of the day to allow for electives, you're not going to get students taking the class because they're not able to take the class because of so many requirements.

My son was going to take intro to auto, small engines, and one other class for his ninth-grade electives. Now, he's taking Spanish for two of those electives because that's what's needed to get into a four-year college. Students can only take so many electives when they're in high school. So, if you do it like the program that Alexandria is putting in, then kids have to fight for—well, they may really like music and dance and math—but they need to prepare for the four-year college. So, they think, 'I need a language and I'm taking math, so I don't have time to take this elective class that I'm interested in.' So, maybe we need to take another look at the four-year college requirements, where you need two years of a foreign language, because that may be two of the student's four electives."		 Southeast
"Another thing to keep in mind is that the kids who are technical are probably going to be more apt to take a post-secondary program at the [MnSCU college] during their junior or senior year, and that penalizes the high school dollar-wise. They already have stretched budgets, and now they lose a bunch of kids to post-secondary, and that hurts their budgets worse. So, they aren't going to be very inclined to encourage them to do that." Southeast
"My concern within the manufacturing sector is that I don't think we market ourselves very well, and I think it's even before the schooling side of it. I think if you look at other industries, they market to the youth in a much better way than what we do within manufacturing. There's a stigma around manufacturing. There's a lifestyle around manufacturing that is really a challenge for some. You know, within manufacturing, you have to go to two, if not three, shifts to make it work. And that's not a world—or a way of life—that most people aspire to. But I think that what other industries have done—you know, look at even the connotation of quick-service restaurants as to the challenge of getting people to work within a quick-service restaurant—yet you see McDonalds who actually is great at marketing to the youth. They actually create an environment that is worthy of note. I don't think we have that within this world of manufacturing. We need a marketing muscle that is able to change that stigma because, by the time it gets to the technical college, we've already lost most of the people who would be really good in this industry. So, it's really a question of how we create a campaign that reverses the stigma, that reverses that mindset. I think that we have to do that at a much earlier phase through a much more coordinated effort within the manufacturing sector. It may not be the most glamorous role or activity, but other industries have been able to create the right spin and mindset to it. I think that there's a real need, and it's a short window given the fact that we're going to lose so many very qualified people. We're going to have this huge void that's going to be that much more of a challenge for us." Southeast
"We actually started working with the Tri-State Manufacturers' Association in the central part of the region about two-and-a-half years ago. It has a pro-manufacturing career awareness campaign. We were able to leverage marketing collateral—best practices from throughout the nation—because it started with the National Association of Manufacturers. They're up to probably close to 25 grassroots campaigns now throughout the nation. We're now looking to expand that in the Brainerd area. We've been able to work with multiple manufacturers in that area. We want something, and we want it here. We want to make a difference, and we've just started some conversations with Minnesota Precision Manufacturing Association (MPMA) about taking that further out into the state. But it is exactly what you're talking about. It's meant to be very eye-catching for youth, but you can also tailor it for an older adult audience to say, 'Pay attention. This is an important industry in your state, and it's a wonderful career, and here's how you can get into it.'" Southeast
"We're not the only players in this because there are others, but we're really looking at robotics competitions as being a way to get into the middle schools and high schools and really generating interest in STEM careers with a real push to the manufacturing/technical programs. We're sponsoring robotics this year with five colleges and about 50 teams of six to eight students. But FIRST is another example of that. There is also BEST in the west central area, but we're really seeing that as a way to just get the kids energized. We've got Boy Scout troops and Girl Scout troops involved. We've got three teams in Anaheim, California right now competing, so those are just a few areas that we're working on. We believe it has got to be done." Southeast
"One of the things that would help manufacturing is if every high school would expose students to manufacturing opportunities. So, that could help with the marketing part—to make people aware of the opportunities in manufacturing. It would give them an introduction to it that they wouldn't otherwise get if they don't have an industrial arts programs anymore." Southeast
"About the high schools, we're trying to build an apprenticeship program with our local high school, but I'm coming up with a roadblock because of the child labor laws. The state has to approve that program, so I think the state really needs to advocate more for employers and apprenticeship programs. We're having a difficult time with trying to get that developed in our area." Southeast
"I think that, as a society, we promote the four-year degree, but if it's not that and if they can't find something else in life, well, there's always that factory work job that's in manufacturing. But manufacturing makes the world go around. You get a lot of people that really just don't want to work in life. They say, 'Well, because I can't find something else, I'll go get a factory job.' They're looking to get a job that's just a job, it's not a career. Because he might have to work a first or second or third shift, it's very hard to promote the idea that, 'Hey, you can make this a lifestyle, you can move up, and you can be successful.' It's perceived as a job that nobody else wanted because they couldn't get a four-year degree." Southeast
"I think we've got to focus on attracting kids out of schools—to let them know that they don't have to go a college to get welding experience. If they can get it as part of school, when they graduate from high school, those kids—if they had the welding experience—could apply for certain positions right now.

Question: We've heard that a lot of high schools no longer offer welding and shop and these kinds of technical trade classes. Is that true in this region as well or is it still offered in some of the schools?

Employer: Four high schools still have some offerings, but in talking with Triton this week, they didn't have any graduating seniors coming out of those programs. And they only had one junior that was eligible to come to work for us even for the summer months because they have to be 18. They said next year, potentially, they'll have some people interested. I think more of them will be 18 by then. I talked to the shop teacher there. They got one shop teacher who teaches it all through high school.

Employer 2: That's the only one in Rochester."		 Southeast
"I think it's interesting that most kids now automatically think that they're going to go to college and get a four-year degree right out of high school. That's just the value proposition for a college degree. It's kind of like with MBAs, we can't take everybody that has an MBA—they're a dime a dozen. Same thing with college degrees, often they come out of college and they don't have the skills that they need in order to survive in the real world. What's the point of having this degree where you're paying $20,000—or more—a year? In the end, you've got a big load of debt and no job experience." Southeast
"The fact is some people can make more out of high school degree with a skilled trade than some people can make with a lot of college degrees." Southeast
"Employer 1: I think we need to train them in high school because there are a lot of kids—it's not a hundred percent of the kids coming out of high school right now that are going to college—there are a lot of kids that go into retail jobs. Or I see them at restaurants. So, I just don't think we have the programs to be able to get them thinking about a welding career.

Employer 2: It's the marketing thing and the image of the industry."		 Southeast
"They have to be skilled laborers. It's an important job. And the fact is some can make more out of high school with a skilled trade than some can make with a lot of college degrees." Southeast
"What's the conversation at the high school level? That's important because this idea of going to a four-year school after high school—the fact is that kids are finding out they can't possibly pay back the debt that they've incurred with the curriculum they've chosen. So, they do get a job, but they wind up with $80,000 or $100,000 of debt, and they're making $40,000 as a professional in whatever. So, what are they being steered towards in high school? Help them understand the math of what they want to do—understand the debt and understand the earning potential—and then they might want to make a different choice. Because maybe it's a better choice to not incur that debt and be a tradesperson. So, while kids are still young, they at least have options to think about." Southeast
"Maybe we need a training program for high school counselors." Southeast
"We talked to some high school counselors, and they got in trouble by parents when they steered certain kids away from four-year degrees. Every parent wants their kid to get a four-year degree. This was the conversation we had a couple of months ago. My oldest daughter is in college and she knows ten kids from Rochester that dropped out of [non-MnSCU college] within the first year. One's a fireman. One's this, one's that. They're just not cut out for it, but we push our kids to go to college. And the counselors say that—if they direct kids to other options—the parents are in the office asking why they told their kids not to go to college." Southeast
"Is there a demand? How many of the kids are going to fill the class? If the technical colleges are going to offer these classes, how are they going to fill them? We just talked last week. We can offer classes through the technical colleges, and we've got to take the responsibility, I believe, in recruiting to fill those classes. I think that needs to be part of our responsibility as manufacturers—we go out and recruit to fill the classes that are available. My understanding is that colleges are having a hard time filling the classes." Southeast
"No one wants their kid to be a welder. But it's a great profession. If you can train it—the army had issues for a while, right?—but the 'be all you can be' slogan changed that. The military, in general, has changed its image in order to attract young kids into the military. You can do the same thing on the manufacturing side. Make it cool to be a manufacturer." Southeast
"I came from a family where my dad is a machinist, my uncle is a machinist, and my cousin's a machinist. So, when my brother graduated from high school, he went into machining—into the technical school. And I think my mom had always thought that her kids would go to a four-year college, and so she was almost disappointed that he chose that route. But now, we are all very proud because that's just the family business. And he makes more money than I do, and I went to a four-year college. So, it's like it spread a good image about it. I guess in my family it's different because we're proud. When the next 18 year-old kid goes to tech school—it's a good thing—but not every family has a good image of it. So, if there's some way that you could spread the word out there—that this can be a good thing. Each mom puts her kid through college, right? And you've had a multi-billion-dollar-a-year college industry promoting it. You know that they're recruiting students to have revenue for their revenue stream, and that's what we're competing against." Southeast
"I would invite all of you to join us in some of our meetings where manufacturers talk about changing the image of manufacturing. The kids like the bells and whistles, and the fun kind of thing. If we all work together to put something together—like events and things—that gets kids interested. We need to promote the image of the industry. We need kids to know that they can go into building all these trucks and stuff. Not everybody understands that. There are so many different things that go on in manufacturing, but I don't think they know that. They think of the old dirty kind of manufacturing work, but that's not what it's like today for most of our businesses." Southeast
"We need to start when they're young. Start that education process at the beginning that it's cool to be involved in all this sort of stuff." Southeast
"I think the healthcare industry has stepped up, and it could be a model for us. I mean, they're going to grow 10,000 employees in the next ten years just here alone. They're getting that. They are in the middle schools. They are in the high schools. They're designing programs for them. Outside this room, most people think that all manufacturers have left America. Most people have no idea what positions are available, what jobs are out there. So, how we are we going to deal with that? We are going to have to do that a lot earlier and in a whole different way rather than thinking that MnSCU's going to ride in on some horse and solve this." Southeast
"I know that the National Association of Manufacturing (NAM) does have this dream to do a campaign. It's a packaged marketing campaign, but you really have to figure it out for your own region. There has been some success in Alexandria. For example, they're building a new high school and they're working with¿they're putting the machines back in the high school because they have a lot of drafting companies in that region. Same thing in northeastern Minnesota, there's a company there and they're starting in middle school and high school because they need employees. So, they're bringing the programs back." Southeast
"When I went to high school, we actually ran a company, and this was in ninth or tenth grade. The shop teacher set up a company. We had to run it, produce a product, the whole ball of wax. I never went to college, and I'm a successful business person as far as I'm concerned. We need to do this. But I've gone into the schools—junior high and high schools—and it's a brick wall. They have no knowledge. They have no experience in it. They've never done it. How can they possibly be steering our kids in the right direction?" Southeast