Skill up: Training workers at Saint-Gobain, the University of Arizona, the US Navy and more

Manufacturing would be nothing without the people in offices and on plant floors to manage supplies, run assembly lines, build things, observe quality and, in short, do the work. Yet, qualified manufacturing workers are perennially in short supply. This digest covers recent initiatives, public-private partnerships, and educational efforts to train and source the next generation of manufacturing workers.

Regional manufacturers in Topeka, Kansas are partnering with GO Topeka, a two-year program that sends its students to work at companies for three days and taking manufacturing-related classes twice a week for a total of 1,800 hours of hands-on manufacturing experience and 60 classroom credit hours. According to local news source WIBW13, the program currently features eight manufacturing partners: Reser’s Fine Foods, Hill’s Pet Nutrition, Bimini Pet Health, Mainline Printing, Futamura, Amcor, HME and Panasonic.

Saint-Gobain Ceramics is holding a Sustaining Futures, Raising Communities workforce development program aimed at introducing students to a manufacturing career and recently held tours of its ceramics plant in Olyphant, Pennsylvania for area high school students. According to reporting from the Times-Tribune, the tour included a team-building exercise and attempts to debunk stereotypes about what manufacturing careers are like.

The National Tooling and Machining Association, NTMA, announced February 10 that it would join the U.S. Navy’s Talent Pipeline Program as a National Facilitator. According to Vince Jordan, who leads the TPP’s team of National Facilitators, the program helps connect employers and share best practices for attracting skilled employees to the manufacturing workforce. In a statement, NTMA President Roger Atkins said the partnership makes the Talent Pipeline Program available to all member companies in NTMA’s chapters.

The University of Arizona and National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University of Taiwan signed an agreement January 28 in Taiwan to establish a Talent and Innovation Hub meant to cultivate collaboration on shared research and engagement with the international semiconductor industry. In a statement at the memo-signing ceremony, Suresh Garimella, President of the University of Arizona, said the partnership would help to address “global challenges in advanced manufacturing, artificial intelligence, and next-generation aerospace systems.” According to the signed memo of understanding between the two universities, the Hub will start with pilot talent programs and applied research initiatives before planning more substantial collaborations.

MACNY, the Manufacturers Association and Cayuga Community College announced February 4 it had held a January 21 graduation ceremony for its shared Advance 2 Apprenticeship and Real Life Rosies pre-apprenticeship programs. The event celebrated graduates from both programs: The first is a free pre-apprenticeship program offering hands-on training for real-world manufacturing alongside support services, and the latter is a direct-entry manufacturing training program for women to learn technical-skills while also receiving support services like childcare and transportation.