Initiative helps manufacturers find skilled workers

Colorado manufactures searching for qualified employees often find it difficult to put together the right talent from today’s employee pool. That’s something one statewide business initiative is angling to fix.

The Colorado Manufacturing Initiative began in December as part of the Colorado Association of Commerce and Industry, or CACI, said Angie Knepell, program manager for the initiative. It aims to address concerns of Colorado’s manufacturing community and keep the industry going strong. A dearth of workforce-ready employees topped the list of business challenges.

“What I hear from many different business owners is that they have jobs available right now, and they are not able to fill them,” Knepell said. “They have had to put off talent searches because they aren’t getting the response they’d like to see.”

Prospective employees often lack basic math and communication skills needed to fill entry-level positions, Knepell said, as well as more specific manufacturing skills such as welding, machining and computer programming experience or equivalent education and training. Knepell works to match available resources with interested manufacturers.

“Owners and managers are really busy running their company and don’t have time to search for available resources,” Knepell said. “We do the leg work for them.”

Interested manufacturing businesses can participate in the member-funded initiative by contacting Knepell or CACI. The 400-plus member CACI boasts manufacturers such as Ball Corp., Golden Aluminum and Lockheed Martin. Initiative benefits include events such as a recent workforce luncheon held in mid-April, which drew together representatives from resources such as the Colorado Workforce Council, Colorado Office of Economic Development, Colorado Department of Labor and Employment and several area training programs.

“We talked about the job opportunities and that federal and state governments do have assistance for worker training and upgrading of skills and techniques,” said Mingli He, a professor of mechanical engineering and technology at Metropolitan State College of Denver. He spoke at the luncheon attended by more than 50 area businesses.

“It’s a really good situation,” He said. He’s seen growth across Colorado’s manufacturing industry in recent years, pointing to more jobs for his students in mid-sized and large companies. Metro State has more than 300 declared engineering technology majors, He said, with up to a 90 percent placement rate after graduation. The college offers four-year degrees as well as several certificate programs. He’s seen student interns offered jobs with follow up emails from employers asking for more.

With the average service-sector job netting $11 an hour compared with a $22-an-hour average for manufacturing jobs and with room to advance for those with aptitude, manufacturing is an excellent career choice, said Grady Cope, president and chief executive of Reata Engineering & Machine Works Inc., an Englewood-based manufacturer. Cope, who recently finished a term as chairman of the National Tooling and Manufacturing Association, saw a skilled worker shortage across the United States, and attributes it in part to the late-1990s misconception that manufacturing had fled the country. However, with the change in the value of the dollar and U.S. manufacturers’ investments in automation and technology, Cope said, the United States is still a world leader in manufacturing.

“The U.S. still produces 23 percent of all manufactured products,” Cope said.

Colorado manufacturers also face the public misconception that manufacturing means dirty, repetitive jobs. Changing that perception marks another Colorado Manufacturing Initiative goal, Knepell said.

“I go and see their plants and tour their facilities. Manufacturing today means working in a very nice environment and working on very high-tech devices,” Knepell said. Manufacturing jobs also demand mental agility and an aptitude for math and science, she said. Part of the initiative outreach encourages educators and training programs to offer manufacturing training and hone students’ math and science skills.

Cope agrees that math and science help students succeed in manufacturing, but adds that “a mechanical aptitude would be the key, and if you’re interested in how things work, in taking things apart and putting them back together, then math and science will only put you over the top.”

Manufacturing positions come with the added perk of a tangible end product, something that proves satisfying to many, Cope said. Parts made in Colorado end up on medical devices, soaring through space in satellites, and pumping out products for the biotech industry.

A typical training program runs for 18 months to two years, Cope said, but in today’s market many employers are willing to take students currently enrolled in school and let them work while finishing their education.

Companies are looking for machinists, programmers, assemblers, mechanical engineers and welders, just to name a few, Cope said, in industries ranging from the health and biotechnology field to aerospace.

It’s also a lot of fun.

“To me, it’s the ultimate 3-D video game,” Cope said. “You get to watch your video game play out in reality on five axis machines.”

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