Manufacturing executives have been losing sleep over the worker shortage for a few years. The situation only continues to accelerate, however. Today, 工人短缺已经开始直接影响公司的底线——2019年第一季度，超过25%的制造商由于缺乏工人而不得不拒绝新的商业机会, according to a report from theNational Association of Manufacturers (NAM)

Why aren’t there enough workers?  The most common response to this question from companies, advocacy groups and the U.S. government is that there is a fundamental skills gap.  工人们不具备在当今高科技制造业工作场所操作所需的技能.

Why don’t workers have the right skills?  Some would argue that if the field paid more, it would have attracted workers who have the necessary training. If workers -- either those graduating high school, 大学毕业生或其他想从事不同职业的人——如果薪水高，就会有很多人才. 

But that viewpoint is too simplistic for Mark Muro, senior fellow and policy director of the Brookings Institution.

“We are operating under a very old model of employment,” says Muro. “我们的结构是从伟大的美国世纪遗留下来的，当时我们主导了世界经济. Mass production was the norm and most people worked for one employer for their lifetime. “

In that model, training, and retraining weren’t nearly as important. But, Muro note, “随着时间的推移，这种情况发生了变化，我们正在看到技术的更快变化，随之而来的是所需技能的变化. But we haven’t created the new systems that truly reflect the needs of the moment.”

The biggest change was after the recession. When manufacturers got back on their feet, they invested in automation and technology. When laid off workers were looking to come back to the sector, 他们不具备适应变化后的职位描述所需的技能，而这些职位的要求比经济衰退前要高得多.

As jobs in manufacturing started to come back -- as of January 2019 there were 12.84 million jobs in manufacturing -- it became harder to fill them. Currently, there are over 500,000 manufacturing jobs open, according to NAM.

Only blaming the shortage on the lack of skills, while true, doesn’t tell the whole story. In addition to the question of pay and its effect on available workers, there is also the issue of stability. 自2000年以来，该行业已经失去了500万工人，主要原因是工厂关闭和海外外包. And even in 2019 plants, such as General Motors’, are closing, resulting in large layoffs. From the perspective of a potential employee, this all demonstrates that there is a lot of risk starting a career in manufacturing.

“Manufacturing has a serious perception problem,” says Carolyn Lee, director of the Manufacturing Institute of NAM. In addition to not understanding the economic factors of the industry, 她指出:“许多年轻人只是不知道这些工厂里发生了什么——他们没有意识到这是一个有着巨大职业潜力的高科技行业.”

Blake Moret, CEO of Rockwell Automation, agrees. 他觉得教育系统没有把这个领域作为一个好的职业来提供，这是不正确的, arguing that high schools are too focused on sending students to four-year universities.  Rather, he suggests, they need to educate students about opportunities that are available with a high school degree, or other two- year programs or certifications.
 

“学生们不应该觉得四年制学士学位是进入劳动力市场的唯一成本,” he says.

他还将在薪酬问题上针锋相对:“现实情况是，有一些薪水不错的入门级工作，它们提供了几乎无限的机会，包括快速晋升的能力.”

Technology Bridges Gap

Training workers in new technologies is the focus of many companies. 霍尼韦尔技术公司正在使用增强现实(AR)和虚拟现实(VR)技术来帮助公司招聘和培训员工.

These particular technologies, in tandem with intelligent wearables, enable knowledge to be captured and transferred in new and efficient ways.

“We view our workforce from a variety of angles with regard to skills,” said Eric Seidel, vice president strategy and CMO, Honeywell Technologies. “We have employees who are retiring, and this is draining a lot of knowledge from the company. Then we have employees who have been with us for over 15 years and need to pick up new skills. And finally, we have younger workers who might only stay for a few years.

“Instead of traditional classroom learning, AR和VR允许人们实际执行任务，因此学习曲线要快得多,” he adds.

加快学习曲线尤为重要，因为年轻员工不愿意花15年的时间接受培训，而过去要求他们能够胜任其中一些工作.

可穿戴设备是另一种形式的技术，它可以将组织的专业知识直接传递给工作中的技术人员. For example, if an employee is working on a piece of equipment in the field, AR/VR training can provide assistance on what needs to be done.

“We have live video streams that we provide to employees through their helmet, vest or hard hat,” says Seidel. “It’s like having someone right there looking over your shoulder who is a subject matter expert.”

This is shifting how the work is done in the field, says Seidel. With the expertise on demand, what used to take almost a year of training now requires just a quarter of that time. 

“数字培训对伴随科技成长的千禧一代尤其有吸引力，他们希望将其作为自己工作的一部分,” Seidel says. 使用AR/VR进行培训的能力帮助公司提高了年轻员工的保留率.

Another appeal of this way of learning is that it provides real-time feedback.

 “Traditionally someone was out in the field, fixed a problem but didn’t always know the outcome until it was measured at a later date,” says Seidel. AR/VR technology can provide immediate feedback, which is especially important to younger workers.

In addition to this technology, simulating outcomes is another training method to close the skill gap.

“Think about a pilot who learns through simulating a variety of problems that could occur,” says Samer Forzley, CEO of Simutech Multimedia.  “We are doing the same thing for the factory floor.”

Simulation is an excellent tool to refresh and provide new skill sets. “The older generation has the industry experience but not always the updated technical skills. While the younger workers are technology natives but do not the years of field experience.”

Presentation of the material is key for this application to work.

 “The situations can’t be contrived,” says Forzle. “When we provide simulations that workers, especially older ones, know could come up day to day, 员工们可以立即建立起信任，走出自己的舒适区，适应新技术.”

模拟的形式——类似于游戏——对年轻员工很有吸引力. “我们听说过一些案例，有些员工下班后在家做这些模拟游戏，因为它会让人上瘾,” explains Forzle.

这种培训的主要好处是教授在学校环境或通过评估通常难以学习的技能. By simulating scenarios that will arise, employees are learning problem-solving skills.

然而，该系统的另一个优点是，它可以用来评估新员工的技能水平. 这既能让人们更好地匹配特定的工作，也能了解存在哪些差距，然后提供培训来克服这些差距.

National Strategies to Fill the Gap

While companies are investing in on-site technology to provide training, 他们还大力投资学徒计划，作为传授数字化制造所需技能的工具. 许多公司已经采用了雇佣高中生的项目，并在他们获得各种学位的同时为他们的工作支付报酬.

Across the county, 这些项目在引进所需人才和同时确保工人进入劳动力市场时具备必要的技能方面取得了长足的进步. 

“学徒制是学生和在职专业人士培养新领技能的一种行之有效的方式——不仅仅是在技术方面, but across industries,” said Ginni Rometty, CEO of IBM, in an op-ed on CNN in January. “And with data showing that 91% of apprentices find work after completing their programs, it's a model that should be scaled up much faster than is happening today.”

To speed things up she suggests a national program. “No one company can launch enough apprenticeships to solve America's skills challenge,” Rometty wrote. 企业的共同目标应该是打造一支由熟练工人组成的全国性队伍，以填补数以百万计的新领岗位空缺, 加速美国的创新，扩大经济繁荣——尤其是在那些觉得科技已经把他们甩在后面的社区.

“Together, we will help close our nation's skills gap, 建立人才输送渠道，让他们在科技发展最快的领域茁壮成长，恢复人们对科技的信任，让科技成为一股向善的力量,” Rometty said.

The tech industry has responded to this challenge loudly. At CES 2019, 17 businesses launched a CTA Apprenticeship Coalition, pulling in manufacturing powerhouses like IBM, and Ford.

The U.S. 政府也通过劳工部的学徒计划参与了这些努力, which certifies company programs for jobs including, CNC machine operator, machinist, maintenance and repair, mechatronics technician, tool and die maker, welders and more. In 2017, the Trump administration set a goal of 4.5 million apprenticeships by 2022.

Apprenticeship are one solution, but they not a panacea, notes Rockwell Automation’s Moret.

This includes high school internships, two-year programs and others. Moret also feels that education has to be more flexible.

"The concept is to have multiple on and off ramps to education,” he says. “People have life circumstance that cause them to go into the workforce early, but they need the ability to go back and get additional education. 这一点很重要，因为职业生涯可能持续40年，而且需要有能力接受不同程度的教育.”

Reforming education, improving training and apprenticeship programs will go a long way toward solving the skill gap.

但莫雷特关于如何吸引工人进入这个行业的观点，可能会成为解决工人短缺的关键.

He says there are three components for people to be happy in their jobs:

“The work you are doing must be important and must serve the greater good,” he says. “你需要工具和支持来做好工作，你必须有机会在你的职业生涯中前进和进步.”