Friday, June 15, 2012

German companies forming a new educational system in America?

Can the Germans teach Mississippi something about education? The Wall Street Journal reported yesterday German manufacturers in American are implementing apprenticeship programs as the American educational system is doing a poor job of producing skilled workers:

"Tenn.—Germany's transplant-factories, like the sprawling Volkswagen AG complex here, aren't just cranking out cars, machinery and chemicals. They're also bringing a German training system that could help narrow America's skilled labor gap.

Volkswagen, whose auto factory will graduate its first class of U.S. apprentices next year, is one of dozens of companies introducing training that combine German-style apprenticeships and vocational schooling.

These worker training programs are winning U.S. adherents as manufacturers grapple with a paradox: Though unemployment remains stuck above 8%, companies can't find enough machinists, robotics specialists and other highly skilled workers to maintain their factory floors. An estimated 600,000 skilled, middle-class manufacturing jobs remain unfilled nationwide, even as millions of Americans search for work.

"We've learned it is better to build our own workforce instead of just relying on the market," said Hans-Herbert Jagla, Volkswagen's human resources chief at its one-year-old Chattanooga plant. The German car maker has launched a three-year apprenticeship program to ensure it has skilled workers to maintain and troubleshoot the car maker's high-tech robotics and assembly line systems.

Companies and federal and state policy makers have begun taking a closer look at programs at VW, Siemens AG and BMW. All have joined forces with community colleges to train workers in machining, welding and maintaining high-tech gear.

In Charleston, S.C., where German auto-parts and engineering firm Robert Bosch GmbH has run an apprenticeship program since the 1970s, aluminum products maker JW Aluminum, aerospace and industrial equipment maker Eaton Corp., engineering company ITT Corp. and nearly a dozen other U.S. companies have set up apprenticeship programs in the past few years with Trident Technical College, Bosch's partner.

"There is not a company I've spoken to that isn't interested in the concept," said Mitchell Harp, Trident's director of apprenticeship programs, who adds that the Bosch program has come to be seen as "the gold standard" in the area. "It is really a question of how to get it into the budget."

n March, Northern Virginia officials visited Siemens and other companies in Germany to explore how they could forge similar skills-building programs with local companies and local schools. White House and Education Department officials also have inquired about a high school skills-training program that German engine maker Tognum AG plans to launch this fall in South Carolina, where it operates a manufacturing plant.

"In the U.S. we've evolved to the point where we think the only thing people should strive for is a four-year college education, and factory work is seen as dirty, dangerous and repetitive," said Tom Duesterberg, executive director of the Aspen Institute's Manufacturing and Society in the 21st century program. "In Germany, the work that is done on the factory floor and prepared by its vocational education system is highly valued."

In Germany, nearly two-thirds of the country's workers are trained through partnerships among companies, technical schools and trade guilds. Last year, German companies took on and trained nearly 600,000 paid apprentices. The schools provide theoretical lessons on the side, while trade unions help ensure training is standardized.

In the U.S., such close cooperation doesn't often exist. Another stumbling block has been companies' fear of spending on training, only to see apprentices go elsewhere. Siemens spends approximately $165,000 an apprentice in its new three-year mechatronics training program in Charlotte, N.C. (KF note: Solution: Contract with non-compete clause).

But where apprenticeship programs are reaching a critical mass, U.S. companies have joined. At Central Piedmont Community College in Charlotte, where some 200 German firms have nearby operations, 18 companies participate in company-tailored apprentice partnerships. Most are European, but a few, such as U.S. bearings maker Timken Co., TKR also take part.

Carolina CAT, a Charlotte, N.C., heavy equipment distributor, last year launched a service technician training program loosely modeled on the German companies' apprenticeships. It sponsors students for 12 months of custom-tailored courses at the college followed by eight weeks of hands-on training at Carolina CAT. When the first class graduates later this year, students are likely to get full-time jobs at the company.

"American companies are beginning to realize they have a part in creating a more reliable supply of skilled workers," said Tony Zeiss, Central Piedmont's president.

The training programs aren't necessarily expensive, said Jörg Klisch, vice president of Tognum's North American operations. The German engine maker is targeting high-school students unlikely to pursue a higher degree. It provided the local school district with a two-year curriculum to train six students this fall as industrial mechanics in its vocational center.

The only cost to Tognum will be the several hours a week it pays students for hands-on work starting at $8 an hour. "We think we've found the missing link in the education system between high school and starting college," Mr. Klisch said.

Companies such as Volkswagen warn that without training its own skilled workers, they may struggle to expand. The car maker should know: As it ramped up production to meet growing demand for its U.S.-produced Passat this year, it needed a nationwide advertising campaign to fill 100 of the more specialized new jobs at the plant, including those for maintenance technicians and manufacturing engineers.

"We can't just limit ourselves to this region," VW's Mr.Jagla said. "It is too hard to find enough people."

Its apprenticeship program is a backup plan to ensure it has enough skilled workers for future plant expansions. About two dozen students join the program each year, then toggle between on-site classroom and on-the job training, while getting paid a starting $10 an hour.

One recruit was 28-year-old Brian Burton, who joined the program last year. When they graduate in 2014, he and his brother Mark will have Volkswagen job offers—likely in skilled maintenance jobs starting at $22 an hour—as well as technical diplomas from Chattanooga State Community College. "It's not an education we can get anywhere else," Mr. Burton said."

I'm just curious. With all of our "community" colleges in Mississippi, do we have any such programs?


14 comments:

Anonymous said...

When our country puts more significance on sports than education, is this a great surprise?

Anonymous said...

Our current situation is crazy...we have college graduates all over the place that can't get jobs....and we have shortage of skilled technicians. It has been going on for years and public policy still can't adjust to it.

Anonymous said...

I agree,

Bread and circuses..

Anonymous said...

According to stats released last week there are 117,000 janitors with bachelor's degrees, as well as 83,000 bartenders.

Anonymous said...

Debatable premise:
This: http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2012/06/hey-that-famous-skills-shortage-youve-heard-about-its-a-myth/258207/

and this:
http://business.time.com/2012/06/04/the-skills-gap-myth-why-companies-cant-find-good-people/

Anonymous said...

My take and I am not saying its right. Many many years ago South Carolina developed tech schools that have now morphed into excellent education centers. They now cover tech and other general business related fields. These were not community colleges but liget tech schools.

So now when a company is looking for a right to work state with strong tech skills, here comes BMW, Boeing, Michlen and others.

By the way when BMW came to SC you know what they called BMW? Bubba Making Wheels!

Anonymous said...

If the educational / industrial methods of Willy Messerschmitt & Ferdinand Porsche
can enhance public education in Mississippi ..... then let's all scream AYE-MEN !.

Sad thing is that it won't work.

Example: Canton does not appear to value education as say... Berlin, Hamburg ect.

Shadowfax said...

Boeing came to Mississippi too. And left as soon as Stennis retired.

Just interested - What 'tech' jobs are lacking applicants?

Anonymous said...

4:50

These worker training programs are winning U.S. adherents as manufacturers grapple with a paradox: Though unemployment remains stuck above 8%, companies can't find enough machinists, robotics specialists and other highly skilled workers to maintain their factory floors. An estimated 600,000 skilled, middle-class manufacturing jobs remain unfilled nationwide, even as millions of Americans search for work.

Shadowfax said...

That sounded a bit like Obama's run-up to his plan to spend additional trillions on workforce retraining. Every county in this state is affiliated with a community college and is in a community college district. Robotics technicians, machinists and engineering techs are (thankfully) not walking the streets in most towns in America. They're employed locally and if not, and they're mobile, they're employed *somewhere*. Community colleges in this state have funding to establish training programs for any employer in this state which has a need such as those 7:15 suggests. All the employer need do is call the workforce training coordinator at their college and inquire.

The other piece of that puzzle is cross-training by the employer. Instead of sticking a man/woman on a machine for life, the employer has got to shift people around to give them training and valuable skills. It's not easy, but dooable.

One thing we do NOT need, as Obama suggested yesterday, is illegal immigrant children crossing our borders (with immunity) so they can grow up to staff our factories.

Anonymous said...

There has been a business and community college cooperation, particularly in the construction industry for decades. Public high schools have worked with community colleges on what was called a 2+2 program where the last two years of high school are preparation for two years at a community college in the technical trades.

The problem is that we haven't been attracting enough of the industries to Mississippi so that those who go into these programs can be assured of employment after completion.

Also, since the public is not familiar with such programs and since so many parents want their children to be college bound, the support doesn't exist so the budget axe falls first on these sorts of efforts.

It works better if the community works with an industry locating there to begin these programs during the planning and construction stage. To do that , the community leadership must be informed enough to work with the local community/technical schools in advance to have a plan on the drawing board. Instead, the industry has usually sought out the partnership with the community colleges after locating.

Susan Purdy

Shadowfax said...

Susan: No industry locates anywhere without first having done thorough research to determine whether or not the skill set it needs exists in the labor market area. No employer comes to town and sets up shop and then goes about the task of contacting local officials and community colleges to see if a qualified workforce can either be attracted or trained.

When industrial prospects are being 'courted', all manner of state and local officials come together to meet with the prospect. Part of that process includes an exhaustive review (with the prospect) of the labor force, training available, community partnerships, occupational skills that exists with 10, 20, 50, 100, 150 mile radius within the prospective site.

It's also nuts to put people in training programs and teach them skills for which no local demand exists. We don't (hopefully) run our labor force training and development programs in that manner. You don't train people, put them on a shelf and then go about the business of selling them to a prospect. But, surely you already know that.

Anonymous said...

Shadow

What do you think the generic college track does?

Someone gets an education in hopes there is demand for it later on.

Why is that OK for college track but not OK for technical skills?

Shadowfax said...

People/students make a conscious decision to enroll in post-secondary educational settings. Often they do so with a vocational objective in mind. Many times (but not quite enough times) the student does so either at his own expense or through loan programs which he often (but not quite enough times) pays back the loan. Sometimes the outcome is that the student graduates with a degree and skill that makes him marketable in the local economy/job market.

To me, this is quite different from a community system taking federal dollars from the money tree and throwing training at the wall to produce unmarketable skills just for the sake of spending federal dollars and pissing away resources.

For decades on end federal funds were used to 'provide training' for jobs that did not exist. It's a racket in many ways. Hopefully those days are gone, unless the current regime stays in place. Please let me know of some place where this sort of training paradigm still exists. If it DOES, it shouldn't.


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