Funding Training is Worth the Risk

Apprenticeship 2000 is a program in which several North Carolina manufacturers cooperate to fund college instruction and provide paid on-the-job training for students pursuing careers in manufacturing. In this video, Ralph Daetwyler, president of the Max Daetwyler Corporation in Huntersville, North Carolina, points out that his company and other partners in the program spend up to $150,000 per student to provide that opportunity, without requiring students to sign any agreement to stay. What if the students take the training and leave? Mr. Daetwyler’s response is, “Then we weren’t a good employer.” A response I would add is that the shared effort of various companies adding talent to a common local labor pool makes the overall region healthier for manufacturing, so the investment still delivers value. I believe regional alliances such as this one (here is another) are the best means of addressing the current lack of skilled manufacturing employees.

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