Expert: Perception problem hinders work force growth

The grim message was conveyed to Southwest Area Manufacturers Association members April 18 at the group’s fourth annual Manufacturing Summit.

Keynote speaker Phyllis Eisen, vice president of the National Association of Manufacturers’ Manufacturing Institute, said manufacturing companies are dynamic and growing – but people aren’t coming to work for them.

“Young people don’t want to go into manufacturing,” Eisen told 135 guests at the summit. “People who are unhappy in their jobs in other industries don’t want to switch to manufacturing. People who have been dislocated from manufacturing say they’re done with it – they don’t want to be retrained, even if the industry is booming.”

The numbers bear witness to the situation: 80 percent of respondents to a January SAMA survey said they plan to add jobs in the next year, but 73 percent said they were having trouble hiring qualified workers.

Negative perception

The reason, Eisen said, is that not enough people see the value of manufacturing jobs, and too many are told that earning a four-year degree and landing a white-collar job is superior to manufacturing work.

“We must restore honor to physical work,” said Patti Penny, founder of Penmac Personnel Services, which places 85 percent of its clients in manufacturing jobs. “We have a huge job.”

The perception problem is prevalent even among manufacturers. A quick poll of the audience revealed that only a handful – around 10 – said they would want their children, nieces or nephews to enter the manufacturing sector.

Youlanda Herron, human resources/ employment manager for Willow Brook Foods, said she’s seeing the perception problem firsthand in the food processing industry.

“There’s a lot of jobs out there, and getting to what the younger generation is seeking is tough,” she said. “We’re just having a hard time replacing the ones who are leaving.”

Eisen said fixing the problem is a cultural issue – the industry must erase the stigma attached to manufacturing.

“Most people aren’t graduating from college, but people are being pushed to college,” she said, noting that only 25 percent of students nationally who begin a four-year college program will graduate. “Meanwhile, technical education has been driven out of high schools. Training in career and technical skills, paired with high academic requirements, would create a different type of graduate, and it’s very hard to get that message through.”

Eisen is trying, though – the National Institute of Manufacturers started the Dream It, Do It program for that reason. The program looks to espouse manufacturing’s potential through marketing and information targeting high school students.

The program has had positive results where it’s been rolled out. In Kansas City, where the program started in 2004, schools saw a 35 percent increase in manufacturing class enrollment after one year.

Partners in education

The industry did have one outspoken advocate from the education field on hand: Hal Higdon, president of Ozarks Technical Community College.

Higdon, like Eisen, pointed out that the face of post-secondary education nationally is changing, but schools are not changing fast enough to keep pace.

“With technology, everything we do now is changing at such a rapid pace – if I take a year to develop a program, and another year to get it going, it’s obsolete by the third year,” Higdon said. “But we’re still using the old model – if you look at the state plan for vocational education, it’s a plan from 1955.”

That snail’s pace partially explains why manufacturers can’t find workers with the needed training. SAMA’s survey showed that only 15 percent of employers said they needed applicants to have a four-year degree or higher.

The real need is for job-specific training, and Higdon said OTC is looking to fill the void.

He pointed to the school’s new truck-driving school, which the school started in February at the behest of – and with funding from – the trucking industry.

Higdon said there’s no secret to figuring out how to help manufacturers, as he realized while head of work force training at a community college in Alabama.

“We asked manufacturers what they wanted,” Higdon said, “and then we did it.”

SAMA Survey Results

What is the biggest problem you face in finding the right workers?

26%

Can’t find low-skill workers

45%

Can’t find skilled workers

23%

Can’t find technically skilled workers

5%

Can’t find management

How much education is needed for new job applicants?

50%

High school diploma or equivalent

27%

Vocational training

9%

Two-year degree

11%

Four-year degree

4%

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