Reading Karl Kapp’s blog the other day, he had a great post on Changing Attitudes on Manufacturing Jobs. This is something that I have written about before how the preception of manufacturing jobs is so last century. People have images of manufacturing jobs from the 1920s-1940s. For the most part, this is not the case. Technology has changed many of the manufacturing jobs. There is a shortage of people to run the machines and to fix the machines. Quoting Karl:

Getting back to manufacturing, as I (Karl) say in Gadgets, Games and Gizmos for Learning:

Many manufacturing companies have eliminated their apprenticeship programs. Trade and vocation schools are mistakenly viewed as places to send troubled students. There have been well publicized layoffs and plant closures. The signals all are leading members of the gamer/net generation to fear that manufacturing jobs are dead ends. The manufacturing industry will not be able to transfer knowledge to new employees if new employees don’t enter into the field. In fact, many “old economy” jobs are not seen as desirable by the younger generation and the recruitment of these folks is going to be a hot issue in those fields.

The Society of Manufacturing Engineers-Education Foundation has created the website Manufacturing is Cool, as Karl wrote, “to help change attitudes of middle schoolers.” Go read Karl’s post for more information. And to quote his questions,

Is any of your training geared toward changing attitudes? What are you doing specifically to recruit young people into your organization? Are you thinking about your industry and whether or not it is attractive to middle school students? Can some of the same ideas in this web site be used in your development of online learning events?

What can you answer to these questions? NetWorks digital library has many resources to help you answer positively. Just type in the keyword search, “manufacturing”.