ahka | MN Manufacturing Careers

MN Department of Employment and Economic Development (DEED) organized this event mainly for job counselors, college and school counselors, educators and even kids to discuss manufacturing careers. The event was held at the Bloomington Kennedy High School in the shop room.

As I parked the car I saw some loud groups of teenagers talking very loud, laughing and dressed in various unique outfits with unique hair styles. For example I saw some girls wearing extremely short and tight shorts like volleyball shorts exposing their big naked legs and one of them was also wearing home sleepers on her feet with material soles. It looked a little bit shocking to me because it was raining and those sleepers looked wet and yucky.

Then I saw boys with pants literally on the ground, and then there were girls with makeup and hair styles like models on the runway. There were a lot of weird looks. I thought that here on campus of MCTC I have seen it all, the high school kids of 2010 were even more extravagant then I have ever seen.

To get to the shop, I had to go through a lot of hallways looking for the signs for this event. Finally, I heard the voices and found the room in the opposite corner of the whole school building from the main entrance. As I walked in I was greeted by the DEED Manufacturing liaison, Debra Bultnick, who was the organizer, she introduced me to a career counselor from Dakota Technical College and I went further down into the room full of metal tables and stools. The back of the room was like a garage with a lot of motorcycles – choppers and one antique car. There were some metal mill machines. This room reminded me my childhood. I spent a lot of time in this type of room at our school while my dad was teaching shop and drafting.

As official part of the event started, teacher introduced his group of students who are in the engineering club who were working on a big project. The project was the domino’s effect models that were designed by the kids. Kids were divided into groups and each group had to design their own model and then connect all 4 of them together so they all would work. The first one would activate the second and the second the third and the third would activate the final fourth that at the end would raise some little flags. Kids explained and demonstrated their projects to us. We all watched with amusement. It was pretty cool even though the ball was getting stock once in a while at different points.

Three men representing different manufacturing organizations in the State spoke a few words. There was a representative from Central MN Manufacturers Association (CMMA), MN Precision Manufacturing Association (MPMA) and TRI-STATE Manufacturers’ Association. They all explained that there is need for skilled workers in manufacturing industry and it is a myth that all manufacturing jobs went over the seas. They explained that people have false understanding of what manufacturing jobs are in our modern world and how people can grow from being a welder into becoming an engineer because companies would train or pay for further education if employee has a desire to grow.

CMMA person was telling us about what he does and manufacturing plants in St Cloud area. I have never thought of this but manufacturers do lab tests for government, law, military purposes on various materials. His name is Les Engel and he is founder of Engel Metallurgical company. He said that students or people who are interested can come over his plant and shadow for a day.

I asked all three men to tell us what skills are needed to be employed in manufacturing jobs. They all agreed that they want people with 4 year degrees or individuals open to learn, who have good math and technical skills, detail oriented, absolutely drugs free and drug conviction free. Then they added that attitude is super important!!! They need people who can work on a team and help each other wearing different hats rather then have an attitude: “What’s in it for me?”

We had a long discussion about attitude issue and how employers address these issues with their workers. The men explained that attitude of supervisors and plant owners also play role in the workers’ attitudes. Les gave an example of 2 plant owners, one has a waiting list of employees to get a job there and the other can’t find workers. One makes his employees feel special and respected the other has cut dry attitude: “come to work on time and I will give you paycheck on time.”

I asked these men to name a few plants in the twin cities area and this question moved us to the presentation of a new website that ISEEK just launched about manufacturing careers that one can find all the companies and job openings. It is an awesome resource!

After this presentation there was another power point presentation to amuse us about the changes in the manufacturing world since 1900s to these days.

At the end, it was time to network. As always, I felt awkward and didn’t know who I should talk about and what is the purpose of talking to these people. So, I started walking around the shop and taking pictures of the choppers.

One woman approached me and we started talking. She is from MnSCU, then another woman came by thanking her and that other woman was from ISEEK. They explained that MnSCU made a good financial contribution into this website. Then I met some people from Employment Action Center. Some of them looked familiar. I met them at the trainings that we used to attend offered by City of Minneapolis. One was from Green POWER project and one from Project RENEW. I need to check out the website: http://www.eac-mn.org/

I also invited director of MCTC career services to this event. She made it there a little bit late but it was nice to see a familiar face. I still felt very awkward in that networking environment. I didn’t know what questions to ask, well I kept asking people what agency they are from and that started the conversation and then I had to do a long explanation of TRiO programs and EOC. Once people heard that I work at MCTC, they felt more at ease.

I left shortly and was afraid that I might get lost in that school. Luckily, I got out fine and saw more interesting looking students.

Tonight is another event and also in Bloomington. I need to get prepared for the networking part of it so I don’t feel as weird as I was last night.