Ohio Educator Targets Skilled Worker Shortage

Precision Machining Technology (PMT) Program instructor Richard Stape is leading a campaign to boost enrollment in his program at an Ohio technical education center and to nudge today’s youth to recognize that a career in manufacturing can offer a gainful, exciting experience.

Those efforts include a blog titled “Manufacturing Ohio,” which aims to provide information about manufacturing and manufacturing education. Posted on the blog is a promotional video for prospective students of his National Institute for Metalworking Skills (NIMS)-certified PMT program at the Mahoning County Career & Technical Center. The video aims to correct common misconceptions about manufacturing, such as the view that it is dirty and dangerous, that wages are inadequate, that the industry doesn’t affect our daily lives, that women have no place on the shop floor, and others.

Additionally, instructor Stape is working with his PMT Advisory Committee and various local employers on a plan for organizing a trade association that will seek solutions to the impending shortage of skilled workers the northeastern Ohio counties of Columbiana, Mahoning and Trumbull.

For more information about Mahoning County Career & Technical Center, visit mahoningctc.com.

To read the “Manufacturing Ohio” blog, visit manufacturingohio.blogspot.com.