Who will work in our plants?
By Jack Smith, Managing Editor -- AppliedAutomation, 5/1/2007
As the skills gap widens, manufacturing industries are taking steps to counter this trend. From the National Association of Manufacturers to universities and community colleges, to state and local governments to ISA, leaders are coming together to tackle this formidable challenge head on.
At the Plant Engineering Manufacturing Summit, keynote speaker A.F. “Tony” Raimondo, chairman of Columbus, NE-based Behlen Manufacturing Co., said our nation is starting to wake up to the fact that we have a skills gap problem. “Across the nation, 20% of community college students have four-year degrees. They came out without an employable skill and they went back to the community colleges to get an employable skill.”
It’s one thing to complain about the impending skills gap; it’s another to do something about it. We all know how global business competition, technology and our jobs have changed – these are issues we discuss daily. Raimondo said it’s not up to education to fight those battles; “we are on that front line.”
As you will read in ISA Insight, ISA is addressing workforce development closer to home – in automation. ISA is promoting a workforce development initiative that will “contribute to our long-term vision and help us support the overarching goals for the future.”
In the words of ISA executive director and CEO Patrick Gouhin, “We can’t do it alone, though. We need partners and contributors to rise to the occasion for the good of the profession, and we’re going to be talking with many organizations and companies to create a cohesive effort across the industry.”
We hope you will join us.
