Solving the Growing Skilled Technician Shortage
By Frank S. Falatyn
What does Ulster County, US Dept of Education, NYS Education and Hudson Valley STEM-based businesses and industry associations all have in common? They all have recognized and working to solve the growing skilled technician workforce shortage.
At last Thursday’s iPark87 Ulster BOCES groundbreaking ceremony to start construction of a new Career & Technical Education (CTE) facility, County Executive Jen Metzger, US Dept of Education Secretary Miguel Cardona, NYS Education Commissioner Betty Rosa all supported and empowered Ulster BOCES, Ulster County Government, SUNY community colleges and industry partners to collaboratively work to redefine and create a new skilled CTE workforce for industry’s growing demands.
Across the U.S. there is a growing shortage of skilled technicians. A recent semiconductor industry report predicts industry faces “by decade’s end a shortfall exceeding 67,00 skilled technicians, computer scientists and engineers”. To start, a new Micron semiconductor factory in Clay, NY needs 9,000 jobs filled and a new expansion at Global Foundries in Malta, NY needs 1,000 jobs filled.
Similarly, for NY’s manufacturing industries, Hudson Valley Community College’s Advanced Manufacturing Technology Center calculates, using National Skills Coalition data, that “in the labor-starved high/semi-skilled labor portion of NY workforce, we have 4,600 available jobs, but only 3,000 people available with the skills required to fill these jobs, a shortage of 1,600 people”.
Where is industry going to find these technicians? The answer is you cannot find them, you have to create them.
There are three (3) pools of people that industries “cannot hire” or “do not hire” today. Two “cannot hire” pools of people are: #1) young people not given the opportunity to explore STEM-based careers; and #2) too many college graduates who lack the skills industry needs. The #3 pool of ‘do not hire” today people are those industry overlooks and does not historically hire.
The new iPark87 BOCES CTE facility / programs provide young people the opportunity to explore in-demand local industry jobs and make informed decisions to either hire into entry level technician jobs upon graduation, or continue their education at SUNY community colleges to further their education and technical careers.
The importance of providing young people CTE program opportunities is spelled out in detail by a recent Strada Education Foundation / Burningglass Institute report. That “among workers who have earned a bachelor’s degree, only about half secure employment in a college-level job within a year of graduation”. The other half are “underemployed”, that is “working in jobs that do not require a degree or meaningful use of college-level skills, and 73% of graduates who start out underemployed remain so 10 years after completing college”. BOCES CTE programs prepare pool #1 and #2 people for technician jobs without 4-year degrees.
The skilled technician solution for pool #3 people who have disabilities or have barriers to employment are now being recognized by industry as a strategic workforce pool to train and hire. Federal and state department of labor agencies are working with industry to develop pre-apprenticeship programs for people who have left school and are unprepared but want to work in skilled industry jobs. For example, the STEPs industry pre-apprenticeship training program, created by FALA Technologies and RCAL (a disability service provider in Ulster County), is designed to prepare and certify people ready for industry internship jobs, followed by placement in community college technician classes for more advanced skills training. STEPs is a free three week training program that next starts on Monday July 29th. To learn more about STEPs and to apply for program selection, please use the following links.
STEPS Interview Request Form (Training Application Due June 28th)