The Manufacturing Alliance of Bucks and Montgomery Counties held the Talent Pipeline Subcommittee meeting on Training Strategies was held on December 8 at Montgomery County Community College. Manufacturers, Educators and County Officials came together and had a robust discussion on training successes, challenges, and what is needed moving forward. Thank you to all who attended and especially our panel members; Bud Tyler of EF Precision Group, Ken Kratz of Bracalente Mfg Group, Kelli Truitt of Harold Beck and Sons, Jim Fox of Montgomery County Community College, Fred Joseph of Phillips Engineered Products Division, Emily Evans of Upper Bucks County Technical School, and Lisa Christman of K’NEX for monitoring the discussion.
Some highlights of the meeting:
- Many manufacturing companies are facing 3-5 employees retiring on an annual basis over the next 10 years. Some companies are having discussions with employees who are 60-65 regarding their retirement plans (being careful not to make suggestions). By getting an idea from those employees who have a goal to retire by a certain age (some do not), this is helping these companies plan their training needs for the next few years.
- Currently, manufacturing companies in our area mostly do in-house training with mentoring programs.
- Companies currently need training to move employees into supervisor position
- The conversation turned toward millennials – along with the challenges of keeping millennials motivated come the benefits of bringing new energy and new ideas to the organizations. It is important to have these employees feel a part of the overall company, and be involved in ways that are of interest to them.
- Maker spaces are seeing street traffic from people trying to transition into new positions taking individual classes.
- Development is needed to have Community Colleges, Tech Schools and High Schools work towards programs together to provide a clear path for students interested in manufacturing.
- The Innovation Grant through the Alliance has a training component, and money that will be applied to training programs. Interested manufacturers need to take part of the training survey at https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/Q82T339 to ensure that their needs are being met. For more information contact Mark Solis at msolis@bucksworks.org
We will be holding our next General Manufacturing Alliance meeting on the Leadership’s Role in The Selling Process, January 12 (which is a manufacturers only meeting) at 9:15am, at AWE Tuning. Our next Talent Pipeline Subcommittee Meeting will be in March. Looking forward to seeing you there.