Manufacturing and education and politics

Manufacturing jobs and the education required to obtain them appear to be hot topics that we will be hearing about as the presidential campaigns accelerate. The President is today in Western PA speaking on manufacturing. I was in the same area two weeks ago auditing the capability of schools in the region to train people for today's manufacturing jobs. Manufacturing jobs have been in big demand, although that demand seems to be softening. But, for those people with the required skill sets, an again softening economy is unlikely to derail their prospects, because employers know how hard these folks are to find.

I spent the last week sailing, so I had a bit more news to catch up on than normal today. What struck me as I perused my usual sources was how many times articles on manufacturing appeared. Automation World carried a piece on the potential disinvestment in Chinese manufacturing based upon an analysis by The Boston Consulting Group. A headline in The Wall Street Journal proclaimed that factory jobs are becoming an election issue, and an email from the PA Republican Party featured the President's visit to Carnegie Mellon University to speak about manufacturing jobs in the midst of continuing bad employment numbers.

On top of this, New Hampshire, Wisconsin and other states remain in the news as right-to-work advocates, unions and politicians continue to square off in the battle over what is best for the economy and workers. Jeb Bush wrote in the WSJ about the need for higher education standards to better prepare students for college. I think we need the same to prepare students to work in manufacturing. Pennsylvania's legislature is reconsidering the value of funding industry partnerships that support manufacturing training.

In my audit of over 20 technical schools this summer, well fewer than half are prepared to teach students the skills necessary for 21st century manufacturing operations. Nearly all complain about the lack of math skills that incoming students bring with them.

Manufacturing needs to be seen for what it is - not what it was. Educators, students, parents and politicians must recognize manufacturing jobs as exciting, high skill, high paying and capable of driving economic prosperity. Perhaps the coming political season will present an opportunity for manufacturing to be recognized and heard once again.

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Comments Investment in the green economy and renewable energy today will help ensure our economies stay competitive in the future. But perhaps more importantly, right now investment in the green economy is creating new jobs for millions of job-seekers. And guess what? If you want to have a green job: get in manufacturing! Posted by: Glass Partitions on February 29, 2012 Post a comment (If you haven't left a comment here before, you may need to be approved by the site owner before your comment will appear. Until then, it won't appear on the entry. Thanks for waiting.) Name: Email Address: URL: Remember personal info? Comments: (you may use HTML tags for style) Type the word 'packaging' (required):