Skilled Workers

[unclesyd]

Why design something if you can't get it made without sending it off shore.
Several recent items in the news have concerned the lack of skilled labor available for a good number of companies now hiring.
This rather long article brings up quite a few very good points that need to be addressed very quickly, not studied by committees. It outlines the lack of training for certain areas, like basic machining and CNC programming in any form now available from trade schools.
We have two vocational schools in the area and neither have anything like machine shop training or practical computer programing. They emphasize car air conditioning, home air conditioning, carpentry, lawn care. One has a welding class but has no coverage of the very basic welding metallurgy. The instructor is just a welder, though a very good one he has not had any formal training in the welding process.
The article also makes a point of the long disused apprenticeship programs and a change in direction in for the trade schools.
When I was in high school both approaches were available if one couldn't go collage. Even then one had to show a basic mechanical aptitude and along with basic math to participate in either program.
This article mentions that Siemens has 1000 jobs, while the news piece talks about around 3,000.
Based on another news item there was recent job fair in Atlanta where thousands showed up for a few hundred jobs. The companies took resumes while the government agencies handed out a paper giving a web address to an application forms. The government action is the typical approach used to cover problems up with paper work.

http://www.theatlantic.com/politics...omy-low-skilled-workers-fall-behind/243012/1/

 

[MintJulep]

Training and apprenticeship programs take time. At least a year, and preferably longer for more highly skilled trades.

This type of "long term" planing doesn't exist in US corporate culture. The next quarter is about as far any business plan looks out.

Companies set up and expect that a pool of appropriately skilled workers is just going to somehow magically exist in the neighborhood.

It's the companies that need to be pushing the trade schools about what skills need to be taught. Unfortunately, except in a few rare cases this isn't happening.

 

[TheTick]

Any idiot can run a machine. What else can you do?

That was a quote from an engineering manager that was interviewing me for an entry level mechanical engineering job. I was a machinist before going to engineering school.

 

[MintJulep]

There used to be "skilled machinists".

Then came CNC.

Now there are "CNC operators" who need no more skill than to be able to load raw stock and take out the finished part.

I know of one famous name company that caused quite a ruckus on the shop floor when they (wisely)made the CNC operators also have to assemble the parts into a finished product rather than read the paper in between load and unload operations.

 

[JStephen]

Long ago while looking for work, I did find that while certain aerospace companies were complaining to Congress about the lack of skilled workers, they were doing zero to get anyone skilled, too. In the place in question, there were two aerospace companies, and I think each assumed they would lure qualified workers from the other.

 

[arunmrao]

" and I think they would lure qualified workers from the other"

This happens every day in Indian foundries,mostly at the operation levels. Instantaneous solutions are needed,no one is willing to train or learn . Perhaps the benefits of US corporate culture,wherethe quarter is the farthest vision in their blinkered sight.

_____________________________________
"It's better to die standing than live your whole life on the knees" by Peter Mayle in his book A Good Year

 

[vpl]

Interestingly enough, various nuclear utilities in the US had set up programs with local colleges to help provide skilled workers for the potential resurrection of the US nuclear industry. Every so often, we'll hear of someone who has benefitted from these programs.

Patricia Lougheed

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[zdas04]

Same way in Oil & Gas. Several community colleges have set up 2 year programs to train oil-field workers. From the graduates I've seen, ours has been successful in turning idiots into idiots with an attitude.

David

 

[KENAT]

Not exactly surprising. We've been dumbing down manufacturing as much as we can for decades. (Not saying it's inherently wrong to move to mass production assembly lines etc. and introduce automation before you label me a complete luddite.)

For the reduced number of skilled personnel we have still needed we've had a rump of older folks to choose from (poach from competitors etc.) so haven't been introducing many new skilled technicians etc. in at least some fields.

Plus, we've been telling anyone with half a brain, and a few without, that they need to get a college degree - or at least move into management if they want to make $.

So, now a lot of those older fellows are retiring, & we're running out of the skilled technicians.

This was evident at my last place in the UK, we still had some skilled fitters etc who'd probably done their apprenticeships in the late 50's/early 60's. Most of them were really good, at worst average. Then most of the younger folks were either only unskilled or semi skilled workers, or else they'd moved themselves in to foreman, production engineering or management roles. They did try to do some apprenticeships but most of the kids weren't really into it, and the company didn't go out of their way to make it as appealing as it could have been either.

Of course, pay enough and you'll probably still find someone.

However, if you're going to have to train someone from scratch, why not train someone in a location with lower wages?

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[arunmrao]

A boy gets trained with some skill sets,but later he does not pursue furtherto join a company which invested in his training. No amount of convincingbudged him fromhis decision. Reason his girl friend did not want him to, . This is real story , played out in Midwest US. The boy is now doing night shift jobs .

_____________________________________
"It's better to die standing than live your whole life on the knees" by Peter Mayle in his book A Good Year

 

[TheTick]

The navy had an axiom about their system: Designed by geniuses to be run by idiots.

I have come to believe in what I call "conservation of competence". For every "watt" of brainpower you take out of running a process, there needs to be one added to designing the process.

 

[KENAT]

Tick, I like the turn of phrase "conservation of competence" it captures something I've expressed before.

Dumb down direct manufacture by all means but it requires that you put more effort into the design (DFMA etc.) and more time into documenting how the work should be done, task specific training etc.

For high volume work it's hard to argue it doesn't make sense, however for low or even what some might consider 'medium' volume I wonder sometimes.

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