BLUE SPRINGS, MS—Juniors and seniors at New Albany and Union County schools in Mississippi will soon have a unique opportunity to learn and earn. In collaboration with local partners, Toyota is launching its 4T Academy in Mississippi. The hands-on training program is designed to place students directly into Toyota production jobs right out of high school.
SOUTHFIELD, MI—SME has developed an Electric Vehicle Fundamental certification program to help educate people involved with the production of electric cars.
As any college football fan knows, the Southeastern Conference (SEC) takes sports seriously, with numerous gridiron rivalries. An engineering professor at the University of Tennessee has come up with a way to transfer some of that competitive spirit to the world of manufacturing.
Every industrial revolution has eliminated old jobs and created new ones. In many cases, manufacturers weren’t aware that these new jobs were even necessary. To succeed in this age of Industry 4.0, manufacturers will need to do more than just develop a workforce capable of dealing with upcoming technologies, they will need to foster a workplace culture of problem-solving and continuous improvement.
ISLANDIA, NY—Digitalization is changing the way people learn, and not just because in-person learning became so difficult with pandemic lockdowns. Trends such as mobile, micro, adaptive, and virtual reality learning were already beginning to influence technical education and training. To further these and other trends, Festo Didactic has developed a digital learning portal—the Festo Learning Experience, or Festo LX—to make it easier to create individual learning experiences for trainers and trainees.
ZURICH—A global survey conducted by ABB has revealed that a significant workforce education gap could derail efforts by U.S. and European manufacturers to reshore or near-shore operations to build resilience in the face of global challenges.
In my June column, I described the magnitude of the skilled workforce problem and some efforts by industry and associations to overcome the problem. This month, I will talk about what federal and state governments are doing to help, and I’ll offer one simple, no-cost, government action that must be implemented immediately.
