The United States has shed 2 million factory jobs because 2007, yet many American companies can’t discover qualified workers to fill their obtainable openings. That is a shocking problem, given the numbers searching for work. However it could also be a break for blue-collar Americans willing to engage their brains. For them, there is a road from unemployment to a good living, and it might go via a nearby community college.
Although fewer Americans function in factories, U.S. factories nevertheless make lots of stuff. Many have computerized their operations to shrink the benefit of competitors in low-wage countries. They nevertheless require people to operate the computers and will pay them handsomely. But applicants with the proper abilities aren’t showing up at their door.
Ben Venue Laboratories makes drugs for pharmaceutical companies within the Cleveland suburb of Bedford, Ohio. It had 100 openings for jobs paying about $31,000 a year. Some 3,600 people applied for the jobs, but the organization could hire only 47 of them.
What was Ben Venue need in education? The ability to read and do math at a ninth-grade level.
John Gajewski, executive director of the Cuyahoga Community College, works with Ben Venue and other local manufacturers to match required abilities with interested employees. My question: How do you get individuals lacking a ninth-grade education up to speed for such employment?
“Let’s pretend that someone’s dropped out of high school,” he responds. “They’re working at low-income work, and they’ve got towards the point where they know they need advanced training to make a great wage.”
The first thing: Get a high-school equivalency degree. Courses leading towards the degree could be found most everywhere and often at no cost. Cuyahoga Community College provides them.
Using the degree in hand, the person can move into a short-term plan at the college that lasts 3 to six months. It offers the technical instruction required by nearby business and teaches “employability” abilities – the capability to function in teams and display motivation to complete the function.
“Those individuals can then move from fast food to a company work,” Gajewski adds. “They may have just doubled their earnings and now get advantages. They are now part of a company with which they may have upward career momentum.”
The psychological advantages can be enormous, as well. The students see that they could be successful in a college environment. They may go on to pursue an associate’s degree in engineering. They may eventually go for a bachelor’s degree.
Cuyahoga Community College has an apprenticeship plan for tool and die makers. The apprentice is employed full time by a company, then comes to class after work. That is 2,000 hours a year on the work, plus 144 hours in continuing education, done on the worker’s own time.
And here’s where the road gets rough for the lazy or unmotivated. Does he or she have the discipline and dedication to work today for rewards tomorrow? The new world of American production isn’t a comfy location for low-skilled employees who wish to invest all day gluing two parts together.
But for people who apply themselves, Gajewski sees a bright future in manufacturing. By 2016, about 30 percent from the production workforce in Ohio will probably be prepared for retirement. This means many positions ought to open for kids now in the sixth, seventh and eighth grades. It’s essential for them to see manufacturing not as a dead-end, dead-brain job, but as an attractive career for educated, creative individuals.
And for people who’ve currently dropped out, community colleges display the way back in. That is an excellent point about America: Many of those who strike out in life can get another opportunity at bat.