Plant Engineering, ISA partner on YAPFEST

Magazine helps young engineers take the spotlight at ISA Conference in Houston.

By Plant Engineering Staff September 8, 2008

With this issue of workforce development and a skilled worker shortage on the minds of its readers, Plant Engineering magazine has partnered with ISA on two new initiatives that highlight the workforce issues.

Plant Engineering will sponsor YAPFEST , the annual meeting of Young Automation Professionals at the 2008 ISA Conference in Houston, Oct. 13-15. Plant Engineering editor Bob Vavra will conduct a forum at YAPFEST focusing on the workforce development crisis in manufacturing and look at how public-private partnerships and manufacturers can encourage young people with an interest in and aptitude for manufacturing to consider it as a career choice.

At YAPFEST, Plant Engineering will announce its Future 30 program, which will recognize 30 outstanding young manufacturing professionals around the country. That program will culminate with a special issue in the February 2009 edition of Plant Engineering. The 30 honorees will be invited to attend the 2009 Plant Engineering Manufacturing Summit.

“Plant Engineering has been ahead of the curve on the issue of workforce development, the skilled worker shortage and the need to promote and celebrate manufacturing as a career,” said editor Bob Vavra . “The YAPFEST program will help us reach out to that young engineer in new ways. Our Future 30 program takes that effort a step further and identifies the skills, characteristics and success that today’s young plant professionals use every day to advance the effort toward quality manufacturing.”

” We all recognize the crisis we face in the manufacturing and technology sector globally. The editorial staff of Plant Engineering magazine came to ISA with some great ideas to educate our young attendees about the opportunities available in automation. ISA’s mission is to educate and motivate the next generation of automation professionals, and this fits perfectly with those goals,” said ISA President Kim Miller Dunn. “We’re thrilled to have their support.”