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Much has been made of the manufacturing employment pipeline in recent years. Companies have worked hard to improve the image of the industry, using plant tours and other programs to show the next generation that manufacturing is high-tech, interesting and engaging. It’s important work for an industry facing a labor shortage.
And it’s work that became more difficult than ever during COVID-19.
But companies found ways to continue connecting with students. The industry can’t afford to “create more leaks in the manufacturing pipeline,” said Geoff Lipnevicius, senior manager of organizational effectiveness for Lincoln Electric Co. in Euclid.
The welding products company has tried to be more “intentional” about its outreach to students in recent years, creating a “menu of tools” such as plant tours and MAGNET’s Early College, Early Career program to engage with them, Lipnevicius said.
When the pandemic hit, Lincoln Electric held virtual plant tours and created videos to highlight possible career paths in manufacturing. And it continued its work with the Early College, Early Career program, which connects high school students with jobs at plants. It even took on some additional students when their jobs dried up due to COVID concerns from employers.
“We didn’t want to walk away from that commitment or abandon that commitment that manufacturing had made to the students, just because of something that hopefully was going to be transitory,” Lipnevicius said.
Manufacturers always are looking to build their talent pipelines, and high school students are an important part of that, both for immediate workforce needs and for the future, said Adam Snyder, managing director of sector partnership at MAGNET in Cleveland. Students aren’t always exposed to manufacturing’s different possible career paths, and companies want to make sure they are.
In Northeast Ohio, MAGNET has worked to raise that awareness over the years, coordinating in-class speakers and plant tours.
“We know that students learn best by talking to people who are in the job, that look like them, that are maybe a couple years removed, and hands-on activities,” Snyder said. “And, ultimately, seeing a manufacturing facility can be a really formative experience as a young person decides what their future looks like, because, typically, students don’t get to see inside a manufacturing facility.”
But the COVID-19 pandemic presented challenges to that traditional awareness work, as schools moved to remote learning. The Cleveland Metropolitan School District in particular remained remote last year, and MAGNET worked closely with the district to schedule remote guest speakers, Snyder said. The organization also created content for schools to use, and worked with companies to create virtual plant tours.
Manufacturing Works in Cleveland worked with MAGNET on some of that video content through the region’s manufacturing sector partnership.
The videos helped Manufacturing Works connect with suburban school districts outside of Cleveland, said Jessica Westropp, senior manager of youth workforce development. The economic development organization had wanted to expand its reach in the past, but it was difficult with a small staff. The virtual options let the team be in more than one place at one time, Westropp said.
“It’s been nice to be able to spread our wings a little bit, to make more of an impact in the community,” she said.
Snyder, Westropp and Lipnevicius all thought the videos and virtual options created during the pandemic would be good tools for the future.
Jergens Inc. in Cleveland last year put together a virtual Manufacturing Day program, complete with a video tour, said director of human resources Michelle Belviso. Manufacturing Day is a national event held the first Friday of October; in recent years, local companies and institutions have often hosted tours and events near the date to raise awareness of the industry.
Training and education has been part of the DNA of Jergens since the company was founded, said president and CEO Jack Schron. Before the pandemic, it was regularly inviting students, teachers and counselors on site to learn about manufacturing and visiting schools for events like career expo days, Belviso said.
But last year’s virtual Manufacturing Day event helped the nearly 80-yer-old company reach more people than it could in person, a lesson that it’s applying again this year. Even though it’s returning to some in-person tours, it will offer a virtual option, too.
In Lake County, a group of economic development organizations will be hosting a downsized version of its annual Think Manufacturing Career Expo on Oct. 7. Though the pandemic isn’t yet over, the chambers thought it was important to bring the expo back in person this year.
“That need for employees has just intensified, ten-fold,” said Karen Tercek, president and CEO of the Willoughby Western Lake County Chamber of Commerce.
One of the companies that will be taking part in the expo is Universal Metal Products in Wickliffe.
The metal stamping company’s corporate HR manager, Christina Balint, said she doesn’t find the virtual options available now are always as “impactful.” The face-to-face component of school visits, especially when the company could bring in apprentices to share their experiences, was valuable, she said. But she doesn’t know whether schools and companies will ever go back to the way it was pre-pandemic.
Despite that, companies have to continue connecting with students, because the talent shortage isn’t going away. Balint said she thinks the pandemic actually widened the talent gap as near-retirement employees left the labor force. If companies can’t get the next generation interested in manufacturing, they have to start thinking about increased automation.
“We knew this was coming, with the amount of boomers retiring, but COVID catapulted this,” she said.
Ultimately, it’s tough to know how the pandemic will affect the manufacturing pipeline in the near-term — or the long-term, for that matter.
When the stay-at-home order started, some students had their in-progress career paths disrupted, Snyder said. And MAGNET lost touch with some of them.
“Those stories weigh on me,” he said.
But the pandemic also caused some students and families to reconsider their plans for the future. More students may opt for manufacturing jobs or related degrees, in the wake of economic challenges or remote higher education options, he said.
At Lincoln Electric, the company realized vocational education was getting put on hold in many cases, and that it would need to supplement its internal training for new employees, Lipnevicius said. Today, it provides a four-week program to train new employees on everything from company policies to foundational skills like soldering or fastener identification — and it’s been attracting employees from industries like food service that saw layoffs during the pandemic.
Whether the programs take place on the plant floor or on a computer screen, one thing’s for sure: Manufacturers will have to continue to look for creative ways to connect with the workforce of the future.
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