Manufacturing jobs aren’t coming back.
I would argue that welders and mechanics and those who worked in factories have the base education and logical ability to learn how to code, and learn quickly.
These are intelligent people who had to learn specific skills, but also had to solve problems when something went wrong.
Not saying they aren’t intelligent people with problem solving ability.....
Just not the base you would use for programming....Good programmers have a very unique focus.....
You could probably cherry pick a small percentage of candidates from the group but their is no way a enmasse program would work....
BTW, manufacturing jobs will come back but on a much smaller scale due to advances in robotics and automation....
Better to re-focus their skils to tradecraft such as Plumbers, electricians, communications techs etc....Once trained, they would have a decent paying job anywhere in the US.
Manufacturing is going to come back big time. Otherwise we are screwed as a nation.