Significant Mid-Level Gap Plagues Manufacturing

Students get a hands on look at the advanced manufacturing techniques through the TAACCCT program.

FONTANA, CA—During the recession, new hiring was minimal, but the workforce continued to get older as the industrial sector grew more dependent on technology, the Industrial Technical Learning Center‘s Ken Eaves tells GlobeSt.com. InTech Center, a 28,000-square-foot, regional, high-tech training center in San Bernardino County that opened this year on the campus of California Steel Industry here, is training more than 2,000 workers in advanced manufacturing, advanced transportation, logistics, energy and utilities as well as computer/ICT/digital media. The programs are conducted at no cost to employers and employees due to a $14.9-million grant awarded by the Department of Labor’s Trade Adjustment Assistance Community CollegeandCareer Training program.

Eaves is TAACCCT industry liaison, sponsor representative—California Community College System, an accredited training sponsor for the National Center for Construction Education and Research at InTech Center. He works closely with industries in the Inland Empire and surrounding regions to determine their workforce-skills gaps and to develop training programs to fill those gaps. InTech Center is one of the few centers of its kind providing a valuable workforce population to manufacturers looking to expand into San Bernardino County.

We spoke exclusively with Eaves about some of the challenges manufacturers are facing today, as well why InTech is so important to the manufacturing industry.