Why Skills Should Lead and When Degrees Still Matter in Manufacturing

If manufacturing leaders are limiting their recruitment pool to those with advanced degrees, they’re signing themselves up for a big opportunity cost. Here’s a new way to think about recruiting.

Education is important. Regardless of era, industry, or ambition, the knowledge and skill set cultivated through education are invaluable.

When talking about manufacturing—an industry currently experiencing a surge in the adoption of sophisticated software and technology—the topic of education takes on a different slant. The decades-old career trajectory of securing college-level degrees, entering the workforce, and charting one’s path through an organization is no longer the only path. Degrees remain valuable (particularly in specialist roles that deal with safety, compliance, and critical processes), but they’re no longer the only path to many modern manufacturing careers, where demonstrable skills can accelerate entry and mobility.

Faced with a widening gap in their workforce, today’s manufacturers aren’t necessarily seeking out employees with degrees—they are competing for candidates whose skillset is digital. Adaptable. Earned through hands-on experience, though that experience needn’t have come from a classroom or, indeed, the shop floor.

If manufacturing leaders are limiting their recruitment pool to those with advanced degrees, they’re signing themselves up for a big opportunity cost. Here’s a new way to think about recruiting.

Tools of the trade

As the older workforce retires, the gaps left behind need to be filled by a new generation. And that generation needs to be qualified to work with the myriad technologies being adopted to optimize historically manual roles and create broader, digital cohesion across organizations. Luckily for leaders, these candidates do exist. Trained through accredited certificates, apprenticeships, military experience, or intensive on-the-job programs, these “new-collar workers” are hired not for their alma mater, but for their experience with (among others) digital simulation software and cloud computing.

Reaching out to new-collar workers from trade schools and skills programs can certainly help manufacturing leaders address their ongoing labor challenges, but it’s not the only way to build out their workforce.

Work from within

The retiring workforce took with them their experience, which often spanned decades. While the type of candidate outlined above certainly has the technical know-how that leaders may be seeking, what they won’t have (at least not right away) is knowledge of a specific facility’s production. Existing employees, on the other hand, do have practical experience.

If leaders create an opportunity for this group to become more adept at using a chosen technology, they can not only abate a large margin of the labor headache but also demonstrate their commitment to their people, not just improvement.

In practice, this can look like:

• Providing training opportunities for employees interacting with a new technology.
• Establishing a role-agnostic skills course so that team members who are open to role growth/evolution can set themselves up for success.
• Partnering with e-learning and accreditation programs for team members to take advantage of.

Thoughtfully implemented, reskilling and upskilling programs can make a dramatic impact. In addition to providing avenues for employees to grow and evolve alongside the business, they drive employee retention, foster community, and create a clear avenue for leaders to fill their workforce with people who have the hands-on experience and technical aptitude.

The digital divide

Agility has long since been a core tenet of manufacturing. It has reshaped supply chains. It has spurred the development of lean manufacturing initiatives and driven businesses to pursue greener, cleaner, efficient operations. At a time when there is a mass exodus from the workforce and only a small pool of candidates to hire from, agility needs to make its way into how leaders think about evolving their teams.

While there is no discounting the merit of education, the fact is that modern tools lower the barrier to entry. That said, effectiveness still depends on context, data quality, and process discipline. Training remains essential—even if the ramp is faster.

In business as in life, this is a case of “yes and.” Yes, leaders should be looking to hire new team members who come to the table not with a degree, but with practical skills, and those same leaders should turn their gaze to their existing workforce. Where are there opportunities for growth? Which teams, departments, or individuals have expressed interest in or seem primed to elevate their roles with digital tools?

When they consider the above and establish an open dialogue with their teams, leaders across an organization can help ensure they have the best people occupying the job—degreed, skill-trained, or otherwise.

Written by: Eddy Azad, CEO of Parsec Automation, for Supply & Demand Chain Executive.