Who Will Follow the 60,000?
A large part of the manufacturing workforce is starting to retire. Here’s how one group is encouraging a new generation to join the industry.
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Roger Sustar of the Fredon Corporation in Mentor, Ohio sent this page—click to see the PDF—out of a brochure from Lakeland Community College in Kirtland, Ohio.
This one page says a lot. In addition to describing modern manufacturing for the layman rather well, it also makes a strong case for why this is a promising career path. While other fields are losing jobs, manufacturing is losing workers. Specifically, an estimated 60,000 will retire from manufacturing in the next 10 years in Northeast Ohio alone.
Mr. Sustar is founder of Northeast Ohio’s Alliance for Working Together (AWT), a group of manufacturers concerned with the perception of manufacturing as it relates to developing and attracting manufacturing employees. AWT partnered with Lakeland Community College to develop an Associate of Applied Science degree in Manufacturing. For links and resources related to promoting and defending the worth of manufacturing, AWT’s website is worth checking out.
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