SAN ANTONIO—The ranks of military veterans keep growing at Toyota’s assembly plant here. Since 2010, the plant has hired more than 40 veterans to work on its maintenance staff alone. Veterans account for 20 percent of the plant’s skilled maintenance force, company officials said.
AKRON, OH—Two years ago, The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company made a commitment to hire 1,000 U.S. military veterans. Today, the company announced that it surpassed its three-year goal more than a year early, and has pledged to hire an additional 1,000 veterans.
WASHINGTON—More than 50 colleges are now part of the Get Skills to Work Initiative, a coalition of industry, educators, and nonprofit organizations helping veterans discover careers in advanced manufacturing. The partnership includes more than 500 manufacturers, including GE, Boeing, Lockheed and Alcoa.
CLEVELAND—Tooling U-SME has introduced a new workforce development resource, called the Competency Framework, that outlines the knowledge and skill objectives for more than 60 manufacturing jobs.
NEW YORK—Almost 80 percent of the current manufacturing workforce is between the ages of 45 and 65, says a new report from ThomasNet.com. One-third are between 55 and 64 years old and starting to look toward retirement. Yet more than three-quarters of the manufacturers in the study said that fewer than 25 percent of their employees are under age 30, and most don’t see that changing anytime soon.
WARREN, MI—A 61-year-old worker was found dead Saturday while working at Chrysler’s truck assembly plant here. The man, who is not being identified, was working on the line performing a weld-check when he was discovered at 10:30 a.m. slumped over.
NEW YORK—In a move to attract the next generation into manufacturing, ThomasNet has launched the North American Manufacturing Scholarship Program. Up to 30 graduating high school seniors with an interest in manufacturing careers will each receive a $1,000 scholarship to pursue studies at a two-year or four-year college, or a vocational-technical school.
NEW YORK—Four of the nation’s largest manufacturers—General Electric Co., Alcoa Inc., Boeing Co. and Lockheed-Martin Corp.—have launched an initiative to teach manufacturing skills to 15,000 veterans, who would then be hired by the four companies or matched to other jobs.