Giving Manufacturing Career Pathways a LIFT

“Giving Manufacturing Career Pathways a LIFT” is a draft chapter in forthcoming book, Career Pathways—School to Retirement, and Beyond, edited by Jerry Hedge and Gary Carter, Oxford University Press

Rapid technological changes, an increasingly global economy, and employment’s changing nature require a workforce that is not only trained prior to embarking upon a career, but that also remains current through lifelong learning. Advanced manufacturing is one of many industries in the U.S. in which employers face challenges finding sufficient workers with necessary skills. 

This case study explores the way the Industrial Manufacturing Technician apprenticeship supports workers and companies’ needs, focusing on three factors: 

1. harnessing the apprenticeship’s potential; 
2. implementing it; and 
3. future options.

Six months after the Labor Institute for Training helped Benteler launch its IMT program, employee turnover dropped from 33 to 11 percent. Additionally, the IMT includes inclusive strategies while creating access to wages averaging $24 per hour. The case study shows developing accessible and equitable apprenticeships for culturally diverse and underserved populations offers a solution to employers and unemployed individuals.

The authors would like to thank to Kathryn M. Clayton, executive director, Labor Institute for Training Inc. (LIFT) and Mark Melnick, executive director, Workforce Strategic Partnerships, Ivy Tech Community College, for their contributions to this chapter. 

This chapter was funded by the generous support of Salesforce.org as part of JFF’s Apprenticeship Awareness and Expansion Initiative. The national initiative expands apprenticeship and other high-quality, structured work-based learning programs through on-the-ground technical assistance and a resource and communications campaign.