“We hear it over and over again, the frustration of manufacturing business leaders, not being able to get skilled help. That’s why we put together this event. When manufacturing people come together like this, we are an alliance. United, we can provide a solution to the skills shortage problem. Apprenticeship programs can work in our region.” Ken Krauss, president of US Axle.
Manufacturers Unite In 2016
Come together they did, when 169 attendees scoffed at the snowy aftermath of a weekend blizzard and attended the regional summit for apprenticeships on January 26th at the Radisson hotel, Valley Forge. 
The drawing card was the ability to hear manufacturing business leaders talk about a strategy to address the shortage of skilled machine workers throughout the Southeast region. The strategy is to duplicate successful apprenticeship models used in other parts of the county and adapt them to fit the culture and specific needs of the southeast region. NTMA, Manufactures Alliance of Bucks and Montgomery Counties and Meridian Bank jointly sponsored this ground breaking event.
John Shegda, President of M&S Centerless Grinding and Regional President of the National Tooling and Machining Association, kicked off the meeting with “it’s about time we stopped talking and started doing something about the lack of skilled workers. For a long time, like so many manufacturing leaders, I had my head down and focused the daily demands of my business. Thank goodness, when I looked up, other people were interested in attaching the problem. I felt that if we could combined the talent and energy of the NTMA and the Manufactures Alliance, we could create a program that would work for all of our manufacturing members.”
Dave Tilstone, national president of the NTMA provided a broad perspective of successful apprenticeship programs in various parts of the country. He also pointed out that the unfolding crisis for precision metal businesses is the current group of approximately 8 million skilled baby boomers is retiring and less than 5 million younger works are lining up to take their place. Dave said that apprenticeship programs are gaining a lot of interest as a vehicle to address the growing issue. While each of the models had a different approach to apprenticeships, Dave said that they were all focused on creating a pipeline of talent and are targeting younger, lower skilled workers with aspirations to have a better career option.
Two young recruits from M&S Centerless Grinding were in the audience and through a video presentation told a similar story of being stuck in a dead end situation. When an entry level training opportunity presented itself, they hesitantly decided to give it a try. Dylan said, “while my parents pushed me to go, I was surprised at how much it challenged me. It really opened my eyes to a whole new world. I am able to learn on the job and the more I accomplish, the more chances I get to move up.”
Dan Fogerty, Executive Director of the Berks County Workforce Investment Board discussed his experiences with the Apprenticeship model used in Pittsburgh. He felt their success was driven by the use of a central training and administrative organization that was the focal point for all the companies interested in creating an apprenticeship. He also felt the Pittsburgh model was limited because of the company centric emphasis for training and lauded the regionally focused model proposed by the NTMA/alliance group.
Dave Tilstone added “I have not visited any region in the US that has such readily available and qualified resources for an apprenticeship program. The energy and commitment from the attendees at the conference was quite remarkable and should provide a strong platform to get the program started. I was especially pleased to see such a large turnout of manufactures. NTMA is proud to be part of this effort.”
John Shegda ended the meeting with a passionate call to action and over 55 member companies signed up to consider an apprenticeship program going forward.