Pilot program aimed at attracting more students
to manufacturing jobs

By DAVID TWIDDY
Associated Press

KANSAS CITY, Mo. - When Brad Husak was 18, the manager at his fast food job introduced him to a friend who owned a machine shop.

Husak said he liked the work, eventually taking technical courses at a community college and eventually getting a job in milling at R&D Tool and Engineering, based in the Kansas City suburb of Lee's Summit.

"I just fell into it by accident," said Husak, 27, adding that he's happy to make it his career.

But industry officials say young people in the United States are increasingly less likely to choose manufacturing as a career path, assuming the jobs are drudgery, low-paying and disappearing to Mexico and China.

To counteract those impressions, several national manufacturing groups on Tuesday kicked off a marketing and mentoring program aimed at persuading people ages 18 to 26 to reconsider a job in manufacturing. "Dream It. Do It." will start out in Kansas City, with advertisements and partnerships between local businesses, community colleges and schools and is expected to go nationwide within two years.

The $1.6 million campaign includes spots on Kansas City radio stations that portray manufacturing as a creative, fast-paced field that pays well and has room to grow. Organizers also plan to use print, television and online ads to promote manufacturing jobs.

The National Association of Manufacturers, one of the project's key sponsors, says the stakes are high. It estimates that in 15 years, absent a surge in manufacturing-inclined students, the nation could face a shortage of between 13 million and 15 million skilled workers.

"I assure you this dwarfs any problems associated with the outsourcing of jobs" overseas, said Jerry Jasinowski, president of The Manufacturing Institute, the association's research and education arm, during the kickoff ceremony. "We're talking about numbers that could bring the (country's) growth machine to a great slowdown if not a stop."

Manufacturing has taken the brunt of the economic downturn. Since 1998, the number of manufacturing jobs across the United States has dropped 18.6 percent to 14.3 million, a combination of greater automation, plant closings and outsourcing.

Jasinowski and others said manufacturing still has plenty of room for growth, especially high-tech fields. The ads also note that the average annual compensation in the industry three years ago was $54,000 and is now more than $62,000.

Larry Holloway, director of the University of Kentucky Center for Manufacturing in Lexington, Ky., said his center, which works with manufacturers on developing training programs, has had success persuading students to take a new look at manufacturing jobs.

"The panic that's gone on about outsourcing has dissuaded students at the high school level from going into manufacturing," said Holloway, who is not affiliated with the "Dream It. Do It." program. "But once they get into college or university and see the opportunities and possibilities of jobs, they move back in that direction."

Organizers for "Dream It. Do It." said they plan to expand the program to Houston this fall and test whether the program is changing people's conceptions about manufacturing before expanding it nationwide.