WHAT DO THE GERMANS KNOW ABOUT MANUFACTURING THAT ELUDES THE US?

German companies in America helping to set up apprentice programs in the US were highlighted recently in the New York Times and the Washington Post.   

The Times article described how Tognum, a German company that builds large diesel engines established an apprentice program mimicking their German model while the Post focused on North Carolina where the German giant Siemens is training apprentices in its Charlotte factory that manufactures large natural gas fired turbines.

Large American manufacturers once had apprentice and job training programs that produced some of the world’s highest skilled industrial workers.  But as a preview of an MIT study on manufacturing finds:

 “Vertically-integrated enterprises used to organize and pay for educating and upgrading the skills of much of the manufacturing workforce. They had the resources to do this. And long job tenure meant companies could hope to recoup their investment over the course of the employees’ careers. Many of the employees who were trained in big companies or in vocational schools they supported ended up working for smaller manufacturers and suppliers. Today, American manufacturing firms are on average smaller, and have fewer resources. They do not plan to hold on to their employees for life. They cannot afford to, or, in any event, do not, train. How do we educate the workforce we need?”

This disinvestment in the training of American workers has left a skills gap that the German companies have recognized.  Of course, this problem also affects all of American high technology manufacturing.  While some vocational high schools and community colleges have tried to fill this void, they cannot address the scale and scope of this need.  We have yet to address the important question posed in the MIT study: “How do we educate the workforce we need?”

Furthermore,  I would add a companion question: How do we give more Americans the skills to take decent paying jobs in a revitalized American manufacturing sector?

Students at the STCC precision machining laboratory making a part on a CNC machine