Instructor Profile: Scott Weiler Have you heard the news? American manufacturing is back! And when it comes to new high-tech manufacturing facilities, Arizona is the place to be. Here’s just a sample of the facilities in Arizona that are under construction or have been announced: Intel’s semiconductor plants in Chandler Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC)’s
In-House Training: Why It’s Valuable and How It Can Go Wrong Should industrial employers provide ongoing training for their employees? How that question gets answered usually depends upon who you ask. Studies show that employees see ongoing training as a desired benefit. Unfortunately, many employers see training as an unnecessary cost. When you look
Why Consider a Career in Manufacturing? Here’s What Manufacturing Workers Say If you work in the manufacturing industry or are involved in training the next generation of workers, there’s one fact you’re well aware of: manufacturing needs more highly skilled workers. The “skills gap” problem has existed for years and continues today. Modern manufacturers simply
New Plants Put Focus on EV Technology Training Will Americans really give up their gas-guzzling behemoths in favor of electric vehicles (EVs)? Even just a few years ago, many people would’ve probably answered “Never!” to such a question. Today, though, a drive around any populated area will likely reveal the presence of at least one
How do you effectively prepare high school students for the manufacturing jobs of today and tomorrow? If you’re Chardon High School career and technical education (CTE) instructors Tracey Britt and Kim Butala, you partner with Amatrol and Buckeye Educational Systems to create what Taneisha Cordell from ABC News 5 Cleveland calls “a technology playground.” According
Proponents of alternative energy sources are excited about growing interest in domestic manufacturing related to renewable energy sources, especially solar. For years now, the supply of solar-related products, such as solar panels, has mostly come from Asia, but that may change in the coming years if the United States government has its way. According to
When the COVID-19 pandemic struck in 2020, employers in every sector experienced a phenomenon that manufacturers had been dealing with for many years: a shortage of skilled workers. Most people vividly remember “CLOSED” signs adorning windows due to staffing shortages. While we’re a ways past the pandemic now, many businesses continue to experience skilled labor
FAIRVIEW, TN – He took the job in 2003 as a business education teacher. But Kevin Sizemore didn’t know he’d build a mechatronics program that offers students an associate’s degree along with their high school diploma. Sizemore, the mechatronics instructor at Fairview High School in Fairview, TN, said his goal as an instructor is to
Today’s career and technical education (CTE) instructors face a variety of challenges. For many new CTE instructors, it’s a matter of establishing a program and getting it off the ground. However, it can be just as difficult to revive and improve an established program that’s underperforming. That’s the situation Dean Lepkowski found when he took
There’s more than corn in Iowa. Baseball fans who cherish the 1989 classic Field of Dreams will remember a baseball diamond forged out of a corn field outside Dyersville, Iowa, that brought the ghosts of former baseball greats out to play ball. Today, just down the road from Dyersville, you’ll find an institution that
If you’re a fan of country music classics, you’re probably familiar with Alan Jackson’s 1992 hit, Chattahoochee, an ode to the muddy river that taught him how to swim, who he was, “a lot about livin’ and a little ‘bout love.” Today, the Chattahoochee teaches a lot more than that. We’re talking about Chattahoochee Technical
As the global economy continues to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic, manufacturers all over the world are still struggling to fill hundreds of thousands of open positions. Despite their best efforts, manufacturers face a shortage of highly-skilled workers to meet their increasing demand. The skilled labor shortage isn’t the only challenge facing manufacturers, though. Global