{"id":6368,"date":"2012-02-21T13:33:56","date_gmt":"2012-02-21T18:33:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/new-hampshire\/?p=6368"},"modified":"2012-02-21T13:33:56","modified_gmt":"2012-02-21T18:33:56","slug":"qa-why-nh-factories-are-struggling-to-find-workers-and-what-the-community-college-system-is-doing-about-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/new-hampshire\/2012\/02\/21\/qa-why-nh-factories-are-struggling-to-find-workers-and-what-the-community-college-system-is-doing-about-it\/","title":{"rendered":"Q&A: Why NH Factories Are Struggling To Find Workers (And What The Community College System Is Doing About It)"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Community College System Of New Hampshire<\/p>

Community College Chancellor Ross Gittell breaks delves into the skills gap issue<\/p><\/div>\n

As the national economy continues to trudge toward recovery, the Obama Administration has been pushing advanced manufacturing<\/a> as a key driver for jobs growth.\u00a0 So over the past couple of weeks, we’ve been looking at various aspects of manufacturing<\/a> in New Hampshire.\u00a0 While the sector historically struggled in the transition from mill work to high-tech fabrication, today, manufacturing is thriving in the Granite State.<\/p>\n

But to continue on a sustainable path, the sector faces one daunting challenge: The so-called “skills gap.”<\/p>\n

In many of the state’s factories, the bulk of advanced machining and other skilled work is done by Baby Boomers, who are rapidly moving toward retirement age.\u00a0 And community colleges aren’t turning out enough graduates with the skills to replace them.<\/p>\n

Recently, we sat down with new Community College System<\/a> Chancellor–and economist–Ross Gittell to discuss the depth of this problem, and how he hopes the state’s trade schools can solve it.<\/p>\n

Q: <\/span>Can you describe what the skills gap issue means for New Hampshire’s economy?<\/p>\n

A: <\/span>It\u2019s particularly relevant as the economy nationally, and particularly in NH, starts to gain momentum.\u00a0 From the Great Recession of 2008-2009, there\u2019s been relatively weak employment recovery, and at this moment, there\u2019s now some acceleration in that recovery, particularly in some areas related to advanced manufacturing.\u00a0 A key issue for advanced manufacturers is where they\u2019re going to expand their operations.\u00a0 And they\u2019re going to expand their operations where there\u2019s the appropriately skilled workforce available…So, if New Hampshire is able to have that appropriately skilled workforce, there\u2019s an opportunity to grow employment.<\/p>\n

Q: <\/span>Do we have that workforce set and ready to go right now?<\/p>\n

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Amanda Loder \/ StateImpact New Hampshire<\/p>

Young workers are a commodity at advanced manufacturing firms like GE Aviation in Hooksett<\/p><\/div>\n

A: <\/span>Yes and no.\u00a0 We do have a strong skilled workforce foundation, with engineering and science and technology-orientation.\u00a0 But some of the skills needed in automation and process control and programming, robotics, and numerical systems in manufacturing, those are really particular skills that we need to train, particularly, our younger workers in…We\u2019re well-positioned with the Community College System to provide that type of advanced manufacturing training in a relatively short period of time, and get those workers placed in these businesses and industries that are expanding.\u00a0 But what that requires is a close alignment of our educational institutions, including the Community College System, with those needs of industry.\u00a0 And we really have good alignment between education and industry currently, but we need to strengthen that…because this is our opportunity, really, to expand our advanced manufacturing, which we haven\u2019t in the state for arguably a decade.<\/p>\n

Q: <\/span>What would this expanded cooperation look like, ideally?<\/p>\n

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