A report from Deloitte and the Manufacturing Institute predicts that U.S. manufacturers will find themselves unable to fill as many as three fifths of the 3.5 million jobs over the next decade.
In addition to retirements, the skills gap in U.S. manufacturing report says factors contributing to the shortage include a negative image of the manufacturing industry among younger generations, lack of STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) skills among workers, and a gradual decline of technical education programs in public high schools.
Jeffrey Harris is founder and managing partner of a consultancy that specializes in attracting leadership to drive innovation in research, science, and engineering.
Harris said his approach to recruiting and placing members of traditionally underrepresented populations is shaped by what he has seen — good and bad — over the past two decades.
“Attracting and retaining diverse leaders requires a disciplined strategy to support their assimilation into an institution,” he said. “We work in close partnership with our clients to develop a detailed plan to allow these leaders to flourish.”
Harris said the plans that prove most effective share the same basic elements:
Expanding the tech workforce is no small undertaking, as underscored by statistics compiled by various government agencies, education associations and industry groups.
• Nationwide, according to the commerce department’s Economics and Statistics Administration, only one in 10 STEM professionals is a minority woman.
• Although African Americans, Native Americans and Hispanics account for 34 percent of the U.S. population between the ages of 18 and 24, they earn just 12 percent of the undergraduate degrees awarded in engineering.
• The National Science Foundation reports that although minority women have made strides in the attainment of bachelor’s degrees over the past two decades, they account for a steadily decreasing share of the bachelor’s degrees awarded in engineering, mathematics and statistics, and computer sciences.
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