Tech skills pop up in manufacturing
Posted on 10/14/2003 8:49:55 AM PDT by rdb3
Tech skills pop up in manufacturing
Too few qualified machinists and auto repairers are replacing those who retire, experts say
Traditional tech industries are still losing jobs, but experts say technology jobs are popping up in one of the industries hardest hit by the economic slowdown: manufacturing.
"The average age of a machinist in the U.S. is 54. An auto technician is 49," said Tom Applegate, president of the Association for Career and Technical Education ( www.acteonline.org). "Now both of those are highly skilled, highly trained technical jobs. What happens to that profession as they continue to age? Young people aren't necessarily becoming machinists.
"We clearly have some options, and one of those options is to outsource to other countries, but that really doesn't help our economy."
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Mr. Applegate and others say that technical workers are in demand even though more than 2 million manufacturing jobs have been lost over the last few years.
Phyllis Eisen, vice president of the manufacturing institute at the National Association of Manufacturers, said a 2001 survey found that almost 80 percent of manufacturers were having trouble finding qualified employees, even though the slowdown was already under way.
A little over a year ago, the association set up a Web site called www.GetTech.org, devoted to educating young people about technical careers in the manufacturing field.
Ms. Eisen said the perception of manufacturing as a nontechnical field is outdated.
Wrong picture
"Young people don't want to go into manufacturing," she said. "They think it's dark, dirty, a dead end – it's in decline. It's an ugly picture of the way young adults, students, parents and teachers think about the manufacturing world. Go on a modern manufacturing floor, and it's like Star Wars. The problem is that no one ever goes," she said.
Not all manufacturers were flattened by the recession, she added.
"There are many industries that were doing just fine: the glass manufacturers, anyone involved with plumbing equipment, anyone involved with houses," Ms. Eisen said.
Housing is one of the strongest areas of demand for tech people, Mr. Applegate said.
"Think of drafting people – people who use blueprints," he said. "They don't use drafting tables anymore. Now it's done with CAD-CAM, computer-aided design and computer-aided manufacturing."
He also cited welding as an increasingly technical profession that's short of workers.
College-bound
Part of the reason there is a shortage is that many high school grads are determined to pursue college degrees.
But after they graduate, they don't have the specific technical skills that manufacturing firms want, Mr. Applegate said.
In 1968, "about 20 percent of the jobs required a baccalaureate degree," he said. "In 2003, about 20 percent of the jobs require a baccalaureate degree. We're enamored of a degree that doesn't really pay."
Mr. Applegate, who is also executive dean at Austin Community College, said schools such as his provide the hands-on tech training that manufacturers want.
Ms. Eisen said the association is preparing a pilot program for 2004 to educate people about technical careers in manufacturing.
She said data show that by 2020, the country will face a shortage of 13 million to 15 million skilled, technical workers in all industries.
"How much of that is manufacturing, we don't know yet," she said. "But manufacturing's percentage of the workforce is about 15 percent, and that may be close to what we need."
E-mail vgodinez@dallasnews.com
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Carpentry isn't going to off-shored. Auto mechanics aren't going away. We don't send our masonry work to China. Our houses won't be contructed in Bangalore.
There really are many good (fun and well-paying) jobs in America, and they aren't going anywhere. But, if everyone tries to be a web-designer they will end up flipping burgers and complaining that their skills are no good.
Another reason dumbocRATs hate "blue collar" workers, is many of them eventually turn into Republicans. When they see more and more of their pay going into taxes for "pet programs' like health care, welfare, social security, etc., they decide that the RAT party has it all wrong.
I have witnessed this with several of the people I work with. They were libs from day one, but after seeing their hard earned money going into taxes, they switched party affiliation.
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Now, masters degrees are demanded, like Bush has. Masters certifiations exist on toilet paper rolls. There are more people with Ph.D.s than there were BS degrees during the '50s.
I'm retired now. In addition to having done graduate work at several major universities, I am an instrument level machinist at the Swiss level of precision as well as a design engineer. You can wipe your behand with machining skills in this country. The pompous MBAs in charge believe you are a second class citizen who shouldn't bet paid anything.
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Now, masters degrees are demanded, like Bush has. Masters certifiations exist on toilet paper rolls. There are more people with Ph.D.s than there were BS degrees during the '50s.
I'm retired now. In addition to having done graduate work at several major universities, I am an instrument level machinist at the Swiss level of precision as well as a design engineer. You can wipe your behind with machining skills in this country. The pompous MBAs in charge believe you are a second class citizen who shouldn't bet paid anything.
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Now, masters degrees are demanded, like Bush has. Masters certifiations exist on toilet paper rolls. There are more people with Ph.D.s than there were BS degrees during the '50s.
I'm retired now. In addition to having done graduate work at several major universities, I am an instrument level machinist at the Swiss level of precision as well as a design engineer. You can wipe your behind with machining skills in this country. The pompous MBAs in charge believe you are a second class citizen who shouldn't bet paid anything.
You can have a nice career programming in FORTRAN -- until they want you to learn C. That's a new skill, and tough for some people to learn. But, if you bear down, you can learn C, and have another nice career in programming -- until they want you to learn Java. Now, we're talking Object-Oriented programming and a lot of people just never grasp it. But maybe you can learn it -- until the next language comes along.
Not to beat a dead horse, but you can be a good Sys Admin in UNIX, but if your company switches to Windows with Active Directory, you have a lot to learn. Do you go back to college? Nope. You learn it on the job.
If a machinist finds his skills becoming outmoded, does he have to change careers? Go to college? I don't think so. I think college is one way to give people job skills -- but vocational education, with on-the-job training is probably more effective for a whole lot of careers (both blue collar and white collar).
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But who gets the promotions, the tech school graduate or the MBA? Graduating from a tech school is viewed as a stigmata the same as being an enl;isted man in the army. The chances are .001 of becoming major.
His companies always wanted to boost him up to management (where the big bucks are), but he wanted to stay "technical" and never got the money he deserved -- until he became an independent contractor and setup his own company.
Companies don't understand (and certainly don't reward) the people who really make the wheels turn. The bean counters get the bucks -- but they create Enrons as often as they create Microsoft. The guys doing the work are often stigmatized because, well, they're (ugh!) workers.
The exceptions are careers like doctor, lawyer, engineer and some other fields, but many famous people have a business or a history degree from a small college that taught them to think. I do not think you must have a degree to do that but some people can't learn to learn without the 4 years of discipline.
Your point and mine will be where people have so many problems in the future, will they learn on the job or will they choose a learning institution ot start them? That will be the challenge of education, not how to teach but how to explain the purpose of their school...voEd or college.
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