November 11, 2012 1:17 PM
Millions of jobs are waiting to be filled, but employers say they can't find qualified workers because of "the skills gap." Byron Pitts reports.
Three million open jobs in U.S., but who's qualified?
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See all 197 CommentsI'd love to also hear from any employees or trainees that have been through one of the programs I've mentioned.
I'd appreciate your feedback.
Thank you,
Heidi
hmacomber @ gmail .com
In my second year class I have four mechanical engineers and an aerospace engineer, as well as two with BAs and one with a degree in chemistry. This is in addition to the usual mix of others, but only five of the kids came directly from high school. My programs graduates fifteen to thirty people a year and every one of them are snapped up, most before they even graduate.
I love manufacturing; I'm a Tool and Die maker and an Aerospace Mechanical Designer, now I teach it. I work with industry and apprenticeship, but as the CEO of ALCOA said; "You can't tell people where to work". Should we....YES, but realistically we can't. I would like some help in trying to get kids interested in skilled trades. Like others have said the high schools used to have much more hands-on classes. With the boom in I.T. and computers in the 80's and 90's, everyone dropped shop and went for computers. Thankfully the pendulum is finally slowly swinging back a little. I've helped to set-up a few high schools, but it is to get the kids into it. I visit schools and try to show the kids what is available out there, I'm lucky if they put down their phones down for five minutes.
I could go on but in my mind it has to start with the mindset of the parents and the high schools. If the Governments at all levels promoted manufacturing as the backbone of the economy I'm sure we could start getting kids interested. I love to train, we can get the people ready for these jobs, but we have to get them in first!
Good work keep it up.
That system sent qualified and prepared students to the university AND into industry to become trained and qualified professionals in each area of interest. That system, with the pressure from the universities, was scrapped for "everyone is going to college".
In those days there was an eight year pipeline (grades 7 through 14) for preparing young people for the trade skills....and yes, it takes about eight years to prepare a person to enter the trades workforce and be productive.
It is, in my opinion, impossible to prepare a precision machinist or CNC programmer/operator for productive work in two years...it is the same for an auto tech and welder for example. The short term solution is retraining of our current workforce. the long term solution, 7, 15, 20 years down the road has to do with starting the training in 7th grade. Without the long term training starting early in grade school, our manufacturing base will grow weaker as each year goes on into the future.
We have an entire school system that starts training people for professional sports, starting in about 2nd grade. Same program is in place at all schools for all professional occupations requiring a college degree. Why are all these K-14 school systems killing the same kind of K-14 "hands on" programs for the industry trades?
60 minutes needs to talk with the vocational teacher associations in each state about the problem of the "shop" programs being closed and dying in almost every K-14 school. Also, the closing of college training and degree programs for people who want to teach "shop" in the K-14 school systems is causing even more of a problem for finding qualified "shop" teachers.
Call or email me here in California and will be glad help you out with a great back up story about the real cause of the skilled labor shortage.
The only fault that industry has to shoulder is that it has not made a national issue about the closing of the K-14 "shop" programs that have in the past supplied skilled people to take the jobs in industry.
John Chocholak
707-326-5324
john.chocholak@usa.net
Board member - California Industrial and Technology Education Association (citea.org)
Board Member - Perkins Industrial and Technology Education Statewide Advisory Committeem California Community College Chancellor's Office
Field Rep - Small Manufacturers' Institute
Board Member - California Auto Teachers Association
(calauto teachers.com)
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