As our country confronts a tremendous skills gap and pushes back against workforce shortages, this STEM education and specialized skills training need to become even more widespread.
To speed up this transformation, SAS has joined with the National Association of Manufacturers and The Manufacturing Institute (the workforce development and education partner of the NAM) to grow the workforce of today and tomorrow.
The skills gap and ongoing workforce shortages are among the biggest threats to American global competitiveness and long-term growth. One study by Deloitte and the Manufacturing Institute (MI) illustrates the scope of this problem. It shows us that the manufacturing industry will likely need to fill more than 4 million jobs by the end of the decade — and more than 2 million of those jobs could go unfilled if hiring and retention practices don’t change.
This isn’t some issue that will only affect us in the long-term — the immediate impact is obvious in the current job market. There is only one job seeker for every two open positions in the U.S. That’s especially evident in manufacturing, where there were more than 834,000 job openings at last count. The labor market has rarely been this tight, and if left unaddressed it will lead to a host of economic problems, including a slowdown in R&D and innovation, foregone business opportunities and so much more.
Fortunately, our initiatives are making headway in closing this gap and building a highly skilled, ambitious new generation of the U.S. workforce. SAS, for example, has helped launch more than 400 joint academic programs in analytics and related disciplines, including the Master of Science in analytics at North Carolina State University — the nation’s first analytics master’s degree. SAS software is available for free to the state’s 58 community colleges, which are vital to cultivating manufacturing talent.
Our manufacturers are in the middle of major campaigns to excite, inspire and educate the modern manufacturing workforce of today and tomorrow, saying in a unified voice: “Creators Wanted.” This Friday, we’re launching MFG Day 2022. MFG Day is manufacturing’s biggest annual opportunity to inspire the next generation to start careers in modern manufacturing through a series of focused events to promote manufacturing to students, parents and educators. Manufacturers here in North Carolina and across the country will open their doors, providing a day-in-the-life look at shop floors, research centers, design teams and more.
Manufacturers and business leaders across the country have a tremendous opportunity to shape the future of the modern workforce. This workforce will need a deeper understanding of digital technology, STEM and all the advanced technologies powering the next industrial revolution. We hope you’ll join us among the ranks of creators building the future.
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