Recent college grads are overlooking high-skill, high-wage jobs in the manufacturing and energy fields because they carry out-of-date perceptions about those careers, work force development experts say.
“Younger people don’t envision machining as an appealing career, which is unfortunate because the job looks totally different today than it did 20 years ago,” said John Shemo, vice president and director of economic development at the MetroHartford Alliance.
“What was dirty, oily and smelly now involves state-of-the-art advanced machining,” he added. “But that old image hasn’t disappeared.”
Students Opt Out
Judith Resnick, director of work force development and training at the Connecticut Business and Industry Association, agrees.
“We have to do a better job educating the students and their parents, guidance counselors and teachers,” she said.
Connecticut schools also need to rethink the prevailing policy of allowing students to opt out of math and science classes by taking substitute courses that are much less valuable in the technical work force, Resnick said.
“The Commission of Higher Education has to take a closer look at graduation requirements because too many students are eliminating these (math and science) courses from their schedule,” she said.
The State Department of Education is currently looking at changing high school graduation requirements, according to Constance Frazer, spokeswoman at the State Department of Higher Education.
The manufacturing and energy sectors aren’t the only fields that are facing worker shortages. Teachers, nurses and doctors are also in short supply.
Boomers Leaving
One factor that cuts across all industries in search of high-caliber employees is the looming retirement of baby boomers. “Any industry where there are large amounts of people in the workforce and large amounts retiring has this problem,” Resnick said. “There are fewer young people in the state, and some leave the state to go to college and don’t come back.”
On the other hand, Shemo said, about 87 percent of students in the Connecticut state university system stay in the state after graduation.
Shemo will discuss industry’s challenges in attracting and retaining talent in a seminar at the Connecticut Business Expo at the Connecticut Convention Center in Hartford June 5. The Hartford Business Journal manages the convention.
