There’s clear agreement that a company’s most important asset is its people, but there’s no consensus on the best recipe to develop them. And nor should there be, as every company’s situation is different. But are there major themes that cut across the spectrum?
Denver is called the Mile High City because of its location in the Rocky Mountains. But, a local college is poised to soar to even new heights because of aerospace manufacturing.
WASHINGTON—A bipartisan group of lawmakers in the U.S. Congress is proposing legislation that would designate 25 manufacturing universities across the country and provide each with $20 million over four years. The designated universities would be expected to invest the funds in creating advanced manufacturing engineering programs, strengthening partnerships with manufacturers, and enabling more manufacturing entrepreneurship.
While preparing for a recent trip to Ecuador, my wife and I spent hours practicing conversational Spanish. Once we got there, however, it became painfully clear that old dogs couldn’t learn new tricks.
SARASOTA, FL—The Sarasota and Manatee Manufacturers Association is asking local manufacturers to host internships for school teachers in hopes of creating a better skilled workforce.
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.