Connecticut manufacturers continue to fret about the dearth of apprenticeship and other training opportunities to produce the next generation of skilled talent, a fresh New Haven Manufacturers Association (NHMA) survey has found.
NHMA is the state’s leading manufacturers’ lobby, counting 200 members, about two thirds of whom are small- to mid-size production shops with 50 or fewer employees. The rest are service companies and suppliers that support manufacturers, said NHMA member and survey proctor Charles Reese.
Reese, a veteran of high-tech manufacturing, is president and CEO of Accelerated Achievements LLC, a Madison-based manufacturing consultancy.
Conducted in early October, the survey went to all NHMA members, of whom 62 responded to a diverse range of questions and issue topics. Reese in October shared the results at a NHMA legislative-issues forum at the Hartford Marriott Downtown.
As with NHMA’s previous surveys, these latest findings, according to Reese and NHMA Executive Director Edward Fenton, will be used to craft the nonprofit booster’s legislative-lobbying agenda for 2018.
Not surprisingly, concerns about the ongoing skills gap confronting Connecticut manufacturers, which are faced with an aging workforce, came through loud and clear in the survey responses, Reese said.
Eighty-percent of respondents said lack of younger candidates for manufacturing jobs was a concern, while 72 percent said they were worried about the anticipated retirement of key personnel.
Other survey highlights included:
• Sixty-six percent of respondents said they rely on the state’s system of vocational-technical (vo-tech) high schools for talent. Even firms that typically seek out older, more experienced workers prefer those who have vo-tech degrees, Reese said.
• At least 45 respondents said they hired a graduate of either a vo-tech school or a community college in 2016.
• The survey also revealed manufacturers’ concerns about high taxes, particularly property and income taxes, which are most painful to small companies.
“We can’t afford the taxes and the fiscal policy of the state,” Reese said.
The first survey in October led the NHMA to undertake a second survey focused solely on manufacturing technology that is rapidly gaining traction in the U.S. That technology is known as “mechatronics,” which combines mechanical systems, such as conveyors, robots and other devices, with sensors and other “intelligent” electronics and computer software for an even greater level of automation and reliability.
The second survey, being led by NHMA’s paid lobbyist Melissa Biggs, targets manufacturers anxious about what they see as the state vo-tech education system’s slow embrace of mechatronics curricula.
The need is growing across Connecticut and the U.S. for talent skilled in installing, configuring with programming and maintaining mechatronics systems, Reese said.
However, he said just a handful of Connecticut vo-tech high schools and state community colleges offer mechatronics courses. Platt in Milford is one of those. A handful of for-profit educators, such as Porter & Chester Institute, also offer mechatronics training.
Reese said the tech survey eventually will be shared with each of the 17 vo-tech high schools and system administrators.
By corralling hard data from NHMA members, the second survey aims to discern the number of vo-tech graduates needed in specific locales and corners of the state, Reese said.
Vo-tech schools, he said, need to know how many graduates per year they must generate, as well as the technical details of what their mechatronics curricula must cover, to satisfy manufacturers’ hiring requirements.
“We are still in data-collection mode and our hope is that before the end of the month to get back to the technical high schools with data,” Reese said.
