Supply Chain Technical Education Workforce Forums – Educating The Next Generation of Workers
The National Center for Supply Chain Technology Education (SCTE), funded by the National Science Foundation, is holding several Education Workforce Forums to educate next generation workers in advanced material handling systems. The goal is to bring industry partners with a strong need for supply chain talent together with academic leaders such as colleges with well established programs.
The industry’s demand for supply chain technicians is important to justify Community College or Technical school programs focused in this specific training. According to the article, Addressing The Supply Chain Workforce Challenges, by Elaine Gartner and Steve Harrington, “Together, the firms participating in this forum have an annual need for more than 1,000 skilled Supply Chain Technicians and currently employ over 8,000 nationally.” Colleges that already have programs such as mechatronics, advanced material handling, industrial maintenance and integrated systems are now able to justify adding supply chain technician training as an additional career path.
On May 10, UPS CASH hosted the Chicago based forum where 10 colleges and 10 companies were represented. “It is very exciting to see the diverse representation of industry, even competitors convening together with education for a common cause,” says Angela Jenkins, MHI Director Career and Technical Education. With every new system installed, a trained technician is needed to keep it operational. UPS provided insight to this trend by presenting an overview of the Plant Engineering program they developed to address future Technician needs. Academics had their turn at the highlighting their programs as well in order to introduce industry partners to the opportunities for partnership at each school.
According to Steve Harrington, “The National Center for Supply Chain Technology Education was extremely grateful for the industry involvement and support at this successful event. 25 executives traveled in for this cutting edge workforce development forum and met with academics representing 10 Chicago area Community Colleges. UPS was an excellent forum host and the tour of their automated package sorting operation was amazing! As a result, companies are now in direct dialogue with area colleges regarding how they can work collaboratively to address the Technician shortage and grow the future workforce pipeline. ” Companies are now communicating and collaborating with area colleges to address the workforce talent gap and to solve workforce development needs.
To learn more about Career and Technical Education opportunities through MHI visit MHI.org/CTE.
