The manufacturing workforce faces a skills gap, with more workers retiring than entering the trades. The gap leaves facilities understaffed and risks losing generational skills. Some signs point to this ship slowly turning, with Gen Z being more open than their predecessors to blue-collar work. Meanwhile, institutes of higher education partner with industry to smooth the path to manufacturing careers. 

This is the Skill Up digest, highlighting recent initiatives, public-private partnerships, and educational efforts to train and source the next generation of manufacturing workers.

Purdue University and Accenture offer two ongoing programs, the Smart Manufacturing Academy and the Smart Learning Factory. The five-year partnership, established in 2022, focuses on smart manufacturing facilities, workforce upskilling, student consulting and scholarships, plus talent recruitment and additional business-school initiatives. Purdue’s Smart Manufacturing Academy provides digital-transformation training for manufacturing workers. Meanwhile, the Smart Learning Factory demonstrates end-to-end modern industrial manufacturing while students also work on real Accenture client projects. 

“Purdue students are working on actual client projects and gaining great work experience,” said Jon Simpson, a Purdue graduate and senior manager in Accenture’s advanced manufacturing division, in a Sept. 14 press release, “and the Accenture professionals who mentor and advise student teams with regular check-ins educate and keep them accountable to industry standards.” 

Fluke and Washington State University have opened the Fluke Engineering Lab at WSU Everett, giving more than 4,000 engineering students across five campuses hands-on experience with more than 30 Fluke measurement and test technologies. The lab, which opened on Sept. 3, will train students on tools including thermal imaging, digital multimeters, calibration equipment and energy loggers. The partnership also supports capstone projects and skills relevant to engineering, advanced manufacturing, maintenance and other technology-driven industries. 

“Tomorrow’s engineers cannot be prepared for tomorrow’s challenges using yesterday’s tools,” said Washington State University President Betsy Cantwell in a press release. 

The University of New Haven has signed Master Partnership Agreements with four companies — Sailion, Medtronic, Sheffield Pharmaceuticals and Arburg — to expand collaboration in advanced manufacturing, medical technology, pharmaceuticals and emerging technology. The agreements, announced on Sept. 9, create opportunities for applied research, workforce development, internships, technology adoption and student projects.

“Whether a company needs engineering support, chemistry expertise, AI applications, marketing insights, workforce solutions, or supply-chain intelligence, The Elevation Center serves as the front door to an ecosystem that can help solve those challenges,” said Paul Lavoie, vice president of corporate partnerships, and innovation and executive director of The Elevation Center at the University of New Haven. 

Florida State College at Jacksonville has opened Florida’s first advanced semiconductor workforce training lab. The lab, developed by industrial automation company Festo’s education branch Festo Didactic, is supported by a $2.3 million State of Florida capitalization grant. It is designed to provide hands-on training for semiconductor manufacturing and Industry 4.0 skills. The facility combines Festo’s Semiconductor Learning Factory and Cyber-Physical manufacturing system with 14 workstations, including silicon-wafer handling, metrology and inspection equipment, industrial robotics, AI vision inspection, manufacturing execution software and autonomous mobile robotics. It will support at least 15 engineering technology courses. 

“Our graduates will be able to adapt to various automated environments – and they won’t be limited to one industrial sector. The skillsets they acquire in our lab translate directly into dozens of technical and operational industries for in-demand roles,” said FSCJ Dean of Engineering and Technology Dr. Douglas Brauer in a Sept. 21 press release.