Podcast: How Mayor Glenn Jacobs is driving manufacturing growth and innovation in Knox County, Tennessee

GJ: One of our big projects and something I'm really proud of that we've been able to launch is the Skilled Trades Academy and Regional Training Center, which is based around construction trades. There's huge opportunities there. For every four skilled craftspeople that are leaving the workforce, there's only one person there qualified to take their place, so that causes issues, not only for the employers, but you know, one of the reasons that housing prices are going up so much is because the labor costs are so expensive now. But there are tremendous opportunities there, that's one of the things that we really looked at, so I'm very proud of that. 

We also work with our local Tennessee College of Applied Technology. It's basically the states vo-tech program. They do wonderful work with things like welding, machining, and other occupations. Our schools are also switching how they do things now, and they're going to an academy model where the different high schools specialize basically in different career pathways, as opposed to everybody the same stuff, and you have a few electives here and there you can pick. The young people and their families are much more able to tailor their educational experience to what they want to do with their life and hopefully get ahead of the game. 

One of my favorite things is, I try to go to all Knox County high school graduations every year. Don't always make it, but I try. And one of my favorites is we have a school called the Career Magnet Academy, and these kids are dual enrolled at the high school, but then also at Pellissippi State Community College, which is our state's biggest community college and their campuses are right here in Knox County. Some of those kids actually graduate with an associate’s degree from Pellissippi State before they get their high school diploma. They will have graduated a few weeks from Pellissippi State with a certification or associates degree, and then they actually get the high school diploma. And of course those hours, can not only be used just to go straight into work, but they're also transferable to a four year university, or to whatever. And I think that's really the way that our overall education system needs to go now because again, things are just evolving so rapidly, and especially for young people having those skills at a very young age, at least coming out of high school, I think is extremely beneficial for them.

What we've tried to do is really concentrate on workforce. Nowadays, companies aren't necessarily looking for sites, OK? It used to be that, “we need a big building and some land around it.” They're much less interested in that now than they are “do you have the workforce necessary to fill the jobs that we're bringing?” which again goes back to having a competent, technologically proficient workforce. I consider that kind of our job, is to work with schools and our education system to provide that workforce, so the companies that are already here and want to expand can, but then we're also attractive to companies which bring opportunities for better lives for the people who live here in Knox County and the surrounding areas.

PS: It's good to hear that pipeline being built out right down to the high school level. That's something that's been missing for a while. Even up here in Chicago, at my son's middle school, they have a careers program in place where they are treating all careers equally. There's the doctors and lawyers track, and there's a teachers track, but also the manufacturing track too. Some of the city colleges in Chicago, there's one dedicated to smart manufacturing. It’s about time the nation's built out this pipeline again.

GJ: Frankly, that's what our country has to do to remain competitive in the 21st century. It just is, when you think about how things have changed. You know, I was talking with a friend of mine who is big in the nuclear industry, and here in Knox County we have a huge asset, we're only about half an hour away from the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, which is one of the world's foremost nuclear energy research institutions. 

He made a great point, is when we're talking about workforce with nuclear and then many other technologically advanced sectors of the economy, the engineers, they make a lot of money and you can hire them to come here because you don't need that many. But most of the workforce is actually made up of technicians, right? And those people already have to be there because you have to have so many of them that it becomes cost prohibitive to say, hey, we're going to bring, you know, 100 people here to be to be our technicians. Our education system has to be producing those already. 

It's the same at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory. You know, you have tons of Ph.D.s out there. But more than half their workforce is technicians, the people that actually do the day-to-day work. It's the same with construction or anything else. You have the folks that do design, and you have the folks that actually build it, and there's a lot more of the folks that build it than there other people that design it. And both are equally important.

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About the Podcast
Great Question: A Manufacturing Podcast offers news and information for the people who make, store and move things and those who manage and maintain the facilities where that work gets done. Manufacturers from chemical producers to automakers to machine shops can listen for critical insights into the technologies, economic conditions and best practices that can influence how to best run facilities to reach operational excellence.

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