(Note: This article is the second of a two-part series. Read Part 1 here.)

Like many manufacturing companies, Alexandria Industries is seeing the shortage of skilled workers rising to a near crisis status. Recognizing that without the human capital to fill the skills gap, many manufacturers may struggle to not only compete but simply survive. This clearly makes our task of building a workforce ready to meet our future needs crucial.

Pressing for solutions, we are creating partnerships with local educators to close the skills gap by developing relevant curriculum, training programs and applied learning projects for current and prospective workers in manufacturing, as well as offering incentives, leadership training and more.

Workforce readiness

With the overarching goal to develop well-rounded and knowledgeable employees, we are focusing on growing the skills and abilities of our employees, and more importantly, working to create a passion in our next generation workforce to pursue the many viable careers readily available in manufacturing.

Over the years, we have been fortunate to have received almost $2 million in training grants from the Minnesota Job Skills Partnership (MJSP) program through the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development. To match these funds, we have invested more than double this amount in training our employees to ensure they have the skills needed to be successful in their work.

Our convenient in-house training programs, include: Leadership Academy, Manufacturing Boot Camp, Quick Response Manufacturing, and Servant Leadership, among others. Our manufacturing boot camp, for example, includes 144 hours of educational training in general business principles, industry markets, technical skills and manufacturing processes.

Training opportunities go beyond manufacturing and focus on business-related topics important to the success of our organization. These specialty areas include things like training and preparation in disaster recovery management, crisis communications, as well as topics like leveraging LinkedIn for business-to-business communications initiatives.

All employees are provided the opportunity to participate in on-campus, for-credit courses relative to their current or future role within the organization. In some locations, we are even going as far as paying for full tuition costs for current students in the machine tool technology and mechatronics programs through our local colleges. These individuals will not only have their education completely paid for, but they will also gain on-the-job experience that their fellow students may not have until they graduate.

We are committed to working around the schedules of our full-time student employees to assure they are able to be successful in their work at Alexandria Industries and graduate within the appropriate time needed to earn their degree.

Future mover and shakers

Our employees are not only on the receiving end of training, they also serve on academic and advisory committees helping to guide the development of course curriculum and lead class projects at our local colleges. They are making time to educate students on machining projects, quality management systems, and the aluminum extrusion process, which typically receives very little exposure in college and engineering curriculum.

Just as important, we also devote time and resources to promote STEM education with our future workforce by participating in Junior Achievement programs and judging science fair competitions at our local elementary schools.

With an innovation mind-set, we are bringing a new perspective to the students’ science fair projects by asking questions that get them to think and see their world a little differently. Our goal is to impress upon them the impact they can have on our world just by experimenting and seeing how they can make things.

Building relationships

The many benefits we receive from building relationships with educators are truly inspiring. We are learning about the needs and wants of our employees and college students, and the dreams of our children.

Our success comes from filling our worker pipeline and making sure our future employees are skilled to a level that can help us all be successful. These efforts are creating a win-win-win for our employees, our business, and for the students who may not have otherwise considered a career in manufacturing.

If you have any questions, or would like to learn more about our employee training programs, or our work with local colleges and secondary schools, please do not hesitate to ask. We will be happy to share with you everything we have done to create partnerships for success.