Larger text
Smaller text
Expert: Skills shortage ‘has become a crisis'
Popular degrees
Colleges and universities conferred the most degrees in these subject areas during 2009-10, the most recent data available.
Bachelor's
Business: 358,000
Social sciences and history: 173,000
Health professions and related programs: 130,000
Education: 101,000
Master's
Education: 182,000
Business: 178,000
Doctorate
Health professions and related programs: 57,700
Legal professions and studies: 44,600
Education: 9,200;
Engineering: 7,700
Biological and biomedical sciences: 7,700
Psychology: 5,500
Physical sciences and science technologies: 5,100
Source: National Center for Education Statistics
Daily Photo Galleries
By Debra Erdley
Published: Saturday, February 23, 2013, 9:00 p.m.
Updated: Saturday, February 23, 2013
A staggering gap between the skills manufacturers need and those that young workers possess is prompting business and industry leaders in Pennsylvania to step up to the plate.
According to the Governor's Manufacturing Advisory Council, an estimated 6,000 to 7,000 jobs each year go unfilled because employers can't recruit people with the necessary skills.
“There needs to be a much stronger connection in the schools between education and the marketplace. ... The gap between skills actually needed and those available has become a crisis,” said David Taylor, executive director of the Pennsylvania Manufacturers Association.
With more than 25 percent of the 575,000 workers on Pennsylvania plant floors 55 or older, the gap could soon widen.
Taylor points to Unity-based Kennametal Inc. and its Young Engineers program as an example of an industry-driven solution that could help bridge the gap.
Every semester, the program, begun in 2011 as a partnership between Latrobe Area High School and Kennametal, puts a group of about 18 promising high school juniors and seniors through 15 weeks of twice-weekly meetings in the company's Unity facility.
Carlos Cardoso, Kennametal president and CEO and a member of the Governor's Manufacturing Advisory Council, two years ago tasked the staff of the Kennametal Foundation with structuring a program to introduce students to the potential of manufacturing.
Since then, Kennametal has replicated the Young Engineers program — now graduating its third class of Latrobe students — at the company's Solon, Ohio, plant. It could become a model used throughout the company.
“When people are thinking about careers, they are not necessarily thinking, ‘I want to go to manufacturing,' ” said Erica Clayton Wright, Kennametal public affairs manager.
David Patti, president and CEO of the Pennsylvania Business Council, said that could change if businesses join schools to communicate their message.
“You can get a history degree out of Princeton and I can get your $30,000-a-year to $35,000-a-year, if you say ‘Do you want fries with that' (job),” Patti said. “But if you have a two-year welding degree from Penn Tech (the Penn State College of Technology), I can start you at $65,000 to $80,000 a year.”
Debra Erdley is a staff writer for Trib Total Media. She can be reached at 412-320-7996 or derdley@tribweb.com.
Most Popular Business Headlines
- UPMC will cut 100 transcribers’ jobs
- Protesters rally at FirstEnergy meeting in W.Va.
- Dick’s earnings rise 13 percent, but sales disappoint
- Highmark, UPMC expect to dominate exchange
- Investors target executive salaries
- PPG Corning bankruptcy plan receives preliminary approval
- High crop prices entice Midwest farmers to expand acreage for planting
- Idaho couple sues Sun Valley, Twitter
- Lawrence County power plant takes another step forward
- Pa. jobless rate declines as fewer look for work
- Blairsville-area company finds 2nd calling in shale gas service industry
You must be signed in to add comments
To comment, click the Sign in or sign up at the very top of this page.
Subscribe today! Click here for our subscription offers.
