Articles Tagged with ''skills gap''

WASHINGTON—American manufacturers are increasingly finding that prospective workers do not have the skill set required to perform basic job functions.

CHICAGO—Half of U.S. businesses say they plan to train new hires this year, up from 39 percent in 2013, according to a recent survey by CareerBuilder. “Training budgets that were diminished or nonexistent during the recession are starting to make a comeback,” says Matt Ferguson, CEO of CareerBuilder.

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.

PRINCETON, IN—A new partnership in Vincennes University here and Toyota Motor Co. pairs textbooks with on-the-job experience to start a pipeline of college-educated manufacturing workers and fill a void created by the lack of skilled workers for available jobs.

Letters matter to welders. A, B and C, for example, are grades that employers use to determine a welder’s current ability, work assignments and pay scale. Letter A is the highest grade, followed by B and C.

DEARBORN, MI—Ford Motor Co. has donated $120,000 to the SME Education Foundation to help produce the next generation of engineers in Michigan.

HEBRON, KY—An innovative program here is designed to get more high school students to pursue careers in advanced manufacturing.

BUFFALO, NY—The Western New York Economic Development Council has endorsed a plan to create a workforce training center here that will help teach local workers the skills needed in today’s more-advanced factory work.

WASHINGTON—To highlight the importance of manufacturing to the nation’s economy and draw attention to the many rewarding high-skill jobs available in manufacturing fields, a group of public and private organizations announced today the launch of Manufacturing Day for Oct. 5, 2012.