Recession Defines a Future for Education: Workforce Training and Discovery Channel's Mike Rowe on Apprenticeships
By Jack Healy, Director, MassMEP
In the latest Wall Street Journal survey on the economy, 52 economists predicted that the current "deep recession" will end in August 2009. While the end may be in sight, the bad news is that nearly half of the economists surveyed stated that it will take three to four years to eat up the slack created by this recession; more than a quarter of them predicted five to six years. We refer to this economic event as the "deep recession," because of it's significance in introducing a future filled with years of slow growth, not only for the U.S. manufacturing community, but for all of our major trading partners as well.
Massachusetts manufacturers, reacting to the current recession, have cut production and reduced staff approximately 5% over the past year (ending in March 2009). Compared to other manufacturing states and other sectors, this a modest decline given the severe drop in national employment. Our ability to avoid a severe downturn is a reflection of the high proportion of the Massachusetts manufacturing base that is in capital goods, with especially large sectors related to defense work and medical devices. An added advantage is the state's large, non-durable manufacturing base of pharmaceutical and biotech firms, who are not necessarily producing discretionary, consumer products.
Massachusetts's orientation to high tech manufacturing and it's needs were highlighted in the state's recent "Job Vacancy Survey." The survey indicated that in reaction to the recession, "Job postings plunged 47% over the year to 3,040 and the job vacancy rate dropped to 1.1%. Nevertheless, the demand for highly skilled workers remained high. Approximately 78% of the manufacturing positions posted for the fourth quarter of 2008 required an associate degree or higher."
This change to an emphasis on knowledge workers is best illustrated in the following table where we see that over 40% of the current manufacturing workforce is now college graduates.
Changes in Educational Attainment of Workers in the Massachusetts Manufacturing Industry, 2000 -2006
Degree
2000
2006
Associates Degree
7 %
8 %
Bachelors Degree
19 %
22 %
Masters or more
10 %
12 %
Source: 2000 Census PUMS Data, 2006 ACS PUMS data, population aged 25 or older
The rhetoric of the past 10 years has been that the only way America can compete and win in the 21st century is to have the best educated, best trained workforce in the world. If we believe this, we have a long way to go in order to attain this goal of requiring learning as a permanent process in our economic manufacturing future.
Manufacturing Has Changed
As indicated in Northeastern's recent survey of manufacturers, "Staying Power Report," the older industries that have for so many years provided a well-paid pathway to middle class for populations with limited education, are disappearing to global competitors. In the past, manufacturing was mostly a low skill, low value-added process , with limited employee educational needs. There was, therefore, little demand on the state for educational support.
This is no longer the case. One of the primary findings of the Northeastern report was "the need for state government to understand the necessity for assuring a well-trained workforce into the future." This is true for entry level workers and skilled labor. The Northeastern survey showed another change in manufacturing when it pointed out that 18.4% of manufacturing workers are in computing, engineering, and science professions. This is almost three times more than is found in non-manufacturing sectors, many of which are considered high-skilled.
Over the years, Massachusetts manufacturers have responded in different ways with the need to attract educated, highly skilled employees to their firms. Large companies. such as EMC and Nypro. have established their own internal universities. EMC has been honored by Training Magazine as one of the world's top companies for employer–sponsored workforce and development programs. Innovative companies like these establish corporate strategies and practices to attract and retain talented individuals and provide opportunities to develop their capabilities.
This can be seen annually at Raytheon's Network Centric Systems graduation of systems engineering Master's degrees. This is a program that is delivered in-house once a week, taught by Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI). In the past several years, over 40 students have graduated from this company sponsored program, furthering their individual education levels at no cost to them except sweat equity. Great program, great company, great results.
Workforce Training Program
While large firms can initiate such innovative solutions for higher education and skill needs, the majority of manufacturing firms are small enterprises that rely on the Massachusetts Workforce Training Grant Program. This unique program is funded through a surcharge to employers on the Unemployment Insurance tax. In effect, this is a "training tax" that funds resources to train employees of Massachusetts businesses (not just manufacturers). If your company pays unemployment taxes, it is eligible to participate in the program.
Since it's inception 10 years ago, the state's Workforce Training program has trained close to 137,000 people in manufacturing alone. The results of this support are reflected in manufacturing's 32% increase between 1997 -2006; it is now the state's largest economic sector, representing 13.3% of total state output.
MassMEP Pre-Apprenticeship Program
Today's (and the future's) slow growth economy, with constantly changing technologies, will require a continuum of training and education options that are not widespread in the manufacturing community. To help address such needs, the MassMEP has established a comprehensive curriculum for a pre-apprenticeship program in Basic Manufacturing Technology and Machine Operator Training. Today's manufacturers cannot provide job security in return for the employee's commitment, as was done in the past. But employers can offer the opportunity to continuously develop employee skills, which, in turn, can further employability, both within and outside the company. The days of employers being adverse to investing in employee skills and/or educational development, for fear of contributing to the employee's job mobility, are coming to an end. Imminent retirements and limited vocations require successful manufacturers to invest in their workforce or there will not be an available labor supply that can be attracted with higher wages, when needed.
Mike Rowe Celebrates Apprenticeships
In an articulate presentation on apprenticeship, Mike Rowe, host of the Discovery Channel's "Dirty Jobs," discusses how movies and TV have declared war on real work. Working people are portrayed as being laughable and/or boring. This is the same subliminal message that manufacturing fights against every day, and it is reflected in the challenge to recruit qualified people into manufacturing. Rowe concludes by suggesting that we need a public relations campaign to reinforce the importance of work, and we need to create an image of jobs that people want.
Given today's economic climate, it is doubtful that such a necessary undertaking as the suggested PR campaign could be funded. However, there are opportunities for all manufacturers to show future employees that this is no longer their father's manufacturing. The easiest way to do this through pre-apprenticeships.
To assist manufacturers in meeting these new needs, the MassMEP has established several pre -apprenticeship programs that meet the basic training requirements for most manufacturers. To find out our more about these pre-apprenticeship programs, contact MassMEP Workforce Programs Manager Ted Bauer at 508-831-7020 or at tedb@massmep.org
For those who wish to view Mr. Rowe's presentation, be forewarned that in this video he describes the castration of baby lambs in a fair amount of detail (one of his "dirty jobs"!). You can view the video here.
