Plant Floor as Path to College? Must it be Either/Or?
March 27, 2025Comments
Recruiting good employees continue to top manufacturers’ list of concerns. Despite a rising unemployment rate and escalating college tuition, the dearth of desirable workers headed for manufacturing remains a problem.
School counselors and parents appear to be softening their focus on academic colleges as a sole path to a promising career. A local high school recently distributed a flyer headed, “You don’t have to go to college to get a good-paying job,” listing the average wages that several skilled trades offer.
Still, counselors and parents remain hesitant to steer their high schoolers to work in manufacturing directly from high school, rather than to college. High school graduation is viewed as a launch pad for one direction or the other, from which students must make a final decision on a career path. While that might be true in Europe, where higher education is government-funded and the government has a heavy hand in the choices that students can make, it’s not true in North America.
The Manufacturing “GI Bill”
In the Corner Office Café article in this issue, (p. 45 and video online), TuscoMfg CEO Michael Lauber relays the company’s recruitment and advancement strategy that I liken to the GI Bill of education benefits. “If one of our employees wants to go to college, we’ll pay for it,” Lauber says. As part of the arrangement, the employees are obligated to “serve” a period of time—active duty, so to speak.
“We hire a lot of kids right out of high school who show a propensity to go to college,” Lauber explains. “We support that when they pursue studies germane to what we do. We pay their tuition, give them the flexibility in their work schedules to attend classes, take their exams and still work. Then for every dollar the program costs, they owe us a parallel number of weeks of work. And, they sign a contract/demand note that requires them to repay these investments if they leave before their term is up.”
Imagine if school counselors, parents and students knew that an option existed to attend college even if students first chose to work on the plant floor in manufacturing. What if companies set up academia pathways, similar to a GI Bill program, that allowed new employees to advance, pursue academic degrees and trade certifications, such as tool- and die apprenticeships, as long as they “serve” for a specific number of years?
Manufacturing jobs in management, engineering, designing, marketing and sales, accounting, software programming, tool- and diemaking, and industrial electronics typically require years of post-high school education. Who better to perform those roles than someone who started on the plant floor?
Financing
As for funding that tuition, manufacturing associations such as the Precision Metalforming Association grant scholarships.
In addition, manufacturers can pursue federal and state grants, loans and tax credits. Resources include Manufacturing.gov, Grants.gov and the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA).
