Back to school, everybody! Not just the usual students or the hoped-for, next-generation of process engineers and operators. Everybody—including all veterans not yet retiring.
Future professionals are still desperately needed to replace their rapidly retiring counterparts. However, the well-known brain drain is being compounded by technical changes like the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), Industry 4.0, cybersecurity and other forms of digitalization, which are evolving and taking over so fast that no one has enough experienced personnel or rookies with the skills to keep up and apply them in their regular operations. Even Amazon reported in July that it plans to spend $700 million to teach 100,000 employees to write software and provide IT support by 2025.
Consequently, where continuing education used to be a nice enrichment option for some process industry staffers, it's quickly becoming an imperative for all technical professionals. Everyone and every organization needs to identify their increasingly widening skills gaps, and learn how to fill them. Time to grow your own with what you've got.
4 methods to help close the skills gap
Everyone and every organization needs to identify their increasingly widening skills gaps, and learn how to fill them.
How to attract and retain the next generation of workers
To attract and retain millennial-age engineers and operators, many employers acknowledge they must adjust their traditional strategies and requirements.
Turning institutional knowledge into plant systems
Workforces can be stabilized by using process control carefully.
Why soft skills are just as important as technical skills
Interpersonal communications are needed for collaboration inside and outside the plant.
Wanted: Critical thinker for an ever-changing workplace
Sometimes people and companies must unlearn and throw out what they've done before to reveal what they can do and need to do.