Where's the gap?
A well-publicized engineering crisis threatens the US's ability to compete against Asia and Europe, but it's our shift to the knowledge worker that's creating today's biggest gap: The middle skills. In optics, the technician role is a middle-skill job that's in high demand. It's tough to attract candidates, and only one-tenth has the skills, particularly math, to make the cut.
So what exactly is the problem here?
1. School system: NY school funding is tied to percent of students who progress to a four-year college program. Some local school boards even deny manufacturers the chance to speak to their classes--limiting kids' exposure to this career track. Those who might be good candidates for a technician training program lack the math skills. The knowledge gap is vast between those on the college track, and those who aren’t.
2. Shift in demand: Small high precision manufacturing companies have had limited success retraining laid off or retired workers from large corporations like Kodak. Skills and wage expectations are a miss-match. Change is hard, and many companies struggle to retrain successfully.
3. Misguided subsidies, funding, and competing governmental agencies: In short, too many cooks in the kitchen. Federal and state funding intended to stimulate hiring seems to have the opposite effect--it slows progress and changes the game from a simple demand-based hire. Available funding is for larger corporations, or to retrain in career "basics" like word processing, or is so cumbersome that it's impractical for business.
Enough! There is lots of research and op-ed that suggests what some entity "ought to do." But let’s skip ahead to what you can do. As a manager or leader in optics, how do you create your own pipeline of technicians?
Here’s one successful program local leaders have started, with great payoffs:
Summer Sizzler
When the local optics cluster and one high-energy science teacher team up, momentum snowballs. More companies want to get involved, more STEM teachers step in to help, State and Local government officials become champions, community college curriculum changes...
This one-week, hands-on camp introduces inner-city high school students to optics. Originally all volunteer-run, this camp is now hosted at the Monroe Community College, with 2 high schools participating, and more interested. It is designed to:
1. Expose students to the field of optics
2. Provide demand for a dual-credit optics course
3. Help students access scholarships and internships
4. Introduce them to businesses in need of workers
Many of these students will go straight to work at the organizing companies after graduation, and those companies will help fund the 2-year associates' program at MCC.
The students, even on their first week of summer vacation, are excited and engaged. Working with people like Josh Cobb, senior optical systems engineer at Corning Corporation and adjunct assistant professor at MCC, and Jim VanKowenberg of Optimax, students work on experiments like:
• Building an LCD projector from a lens and LCD digital photo key chain
• Building an interferometer
• Using fiber-optic cables as a light pipe to determine efficiency of light
• Creating 3-D images
All this just goes to prove 2 key truths:
1. Teenagers will work hard for pizza and money.
2. A few action-oriented leaders can get things done and inspire action from the community.
Along with local and national optics companies, we'll be sponsoring this camp again in June--check back for photos and video of the students' work. If you’re interested in sponsorship, volunteering, or organizing your own, comment or contact me.
The next post will cover another way to get involved
in helping kids get and stay interested in engineering: FIRST.
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