A New Manufacturing Apprenticeship

Although the 21st Century has challenged and transformed American manufacturing, the sector remains a leading employer and a pillar of the national economy. Manufacturing firms have added jobs since the depths of the recession, and the aging of the manufacturing workforce is also creating new demand for workers. While employment in manufacturing is expanding, jobs and careers in the sector have been repeatedly remade by the rapid changes in technology and organization that characterize modern flexible production. Recession, reorganization, layoff, and plant closings have reduced training infrastructure and the job ladder systems that once defined the industry. Old systems of advancement have disappeared even as firms realize they need workers with more skills. The Manufacturing Institute’s 2015 Skills Gap Report found that 54 percent of manufacturer respondents report a shortage of skilled production workers today, and 63 percent expect a shortage by 2020. Apprenticeship is a tool to answer the needs of the industry.

A city defined by its manufacturing roots, Milwaukee has been at the center of these trends. As the industry faces global competition and rapid technological change, the Wisconsin Regional Training Partnership/BIG STEP (WRTP/BIG STEP) is working with labor and management leaders to meet industry skill needs while building connections to and opportunity for the central city community. The Industrial Manufacturing Technician Registered Apprenticeship (IMT) is the answer to the current need. The apprenticeship is designed to meet the skill demands of industry. At the same time, the IMT is extending opportunity to people of color, women, and other workers who historically have not had a direct route to better manufacturing jobs.

IMT History

One of WRTP/BIG STEP’s major initiatives is to expand equity in manufacturing employment by making careers in urban industry available to central city residents. The organization’s mission statement is: “By being industry led, worker centered, and community focused, WRTP/BIG STEP helps under-employed, under-served, and under-represented individuals succeed in well-paying careers while exceeding industry’s workforce needs.” The IMT’s success is grounded in WRTP/BIG STEP’s deep relationships with manufacturing firms and labor unions, their driving concern of building opportunity for “under-employed, under-served, and under-represented” workers, and the long tradition of apprenticeship in Wisconsin. This paper offers the story how equity is built into this apprenticeship innovation as it responds to the evolving manufacturing sector.

A New Training Approach for Production Workers

WRTP/BIG STEP developed the IMT directly in response to industry needs. During their 2011 annual assessment of industry needs, WRTP/BIG STEP staff found that a shortage of skilled workers and training opportunity was an issue across the sector. The IMT addresses the manufacturing skills gap by improving the skills of workers already inside the manufacturing industry. IMT apprentices focus on inspection, repair, mathematics, quality assurance and control, preventive maintenance, blueprint and schematic reading, inventory management, equipment testing, and manufacturing processes. For many production workers, training in this modern manufacturing skillset is simply unavailable before the advent of the IMT.

The IMT creates a middle step in the manufacturing career ladder. While manufacturing has long hosted a small number of apprentices and journey-level workers in very skilled positions (maintenance and tool and die, for example), there is a large gap separating the production workforce from getting to those opportunities. That’s where the IMT Apprenticeship comes in. The IMT brings necessary skills to the average production worker and provides them with opportunities to advance beyond their current position. It is a shorter-term apprenticeship that provides training in 18 months to two years, an attractive feature for employers and production workers alike.

The IMT was a step toward re-establishing and re-orienting manufacturing training opportunities in ways that enable the participation of younger and more diverse workers who are the majority of manufacturing production workforce but were historically excluded from the best training and career opportunities. Both employers and unions see the value of shorter-term apprenticeships, as it enables workers’ advancement in their fields and is a solution to employers’ skill needs. They also note that the program has strengthened labor-management relations and connected local workforce investment systems to high performance manufacturing.

Greater Equity

The IMT improves access to good jobs for people of color and women workers. These once “non-traditional” workers now make up a significant share of Milwaukee’s production workforce, but the most highly skilled workers still tend to be older, white, and male. Manufacturing’s advanced registered apprenticeships (e.g. maintenance or electrical/mechanical) are geared towards people deeply familiar with industrial trades. Opportunities to enter these apprenticeship programs are limited, and they are generally the domain of white men. WRTP/BIG STEP developed the IMT in response to growing demand in the manufacturing sector for workers with the skills necessary to troubleshoot at a high level, understand the lean manufacturing model, and efficiently adapt to new work processes. The IMT also diversifies the skills training pipeline, and helps individuals from underrepresented groups meet the needs of manufacturing employers while preparing themselves to enter the higher-skilled occupations in manufacturing.

As IMT apprentices learn skills and take advantage of new opportunities, they share their experiences with friends and family, and help recruit other people into the program. According to Rhandi Berth, WRTP/BIG STEP’s Director of Industrial Initiatives, the IMT program in a manufacturing facility provides for greater diversity, developing on-the-shop floor training experts and a more highly skilled workforce “because employers choose their most skilled workers, those with longer work histories are the first selected for IMTs. As vacancies happen, this provides opening for greater diversity of people training for their IMT.”

Just as the IMT apprenticeship was developed to address industry needs, increasing equity in manufacturing employment is a necessary step to solving the industry’s skills shortage, and has been a focus since the beginning of the project. The solution responds directly to the framework that defines WRTP/BIG STEP: industry-led, worker-driven, community-focused. Attention to access and opportunity for non-traditional workers in the program is built in to every aspect of the IMT.

The IMT is a Department of Labor-registered, employer-based program which builds the skills of manufacturing workers. As defined by the U.S. Department of Labor, Registered Apprenticeships are employer-driven training programs that combine on-the-job learning with related classroom instruction to increase an apprentice’s skill level and wages. They are proven solutions for businesses looking to recruit, train, and retain highly skilled workers. Apprenticeship is a flexible training strategy that can be customized to meet the needs of every business, and can be integrated into current training and human resource development strategies. The flexibility of IMT training allows firms to customize the program to their production process and the needs of their employees. Consequently, the program requires collaboration and partnership between employers, employees, and training providers. Employers pay apprentices wages for on-the-job training, and some also pay wages for classroom training. The quality of the training is held to a high standard, but the modes of delivery (community college and/or private provider), the number of apprentices, and structure and timing of classes are unique to each firm. As a result, the cost of the program can vary significantly: for some smaller firms, program costs can be prohibitive, but WRTP/BIG STEP works to find external funding sources to support apprenticeship for them.

Worker Voices and Labor/Management Partnership Shape the Program

Workers and their representatives provide feedback from the shop floor regarding the day-to-day training needs of apprentices and their impact on productivity. Labor and management leaders work together to identify shop floor issues, learn from programs at other companies, and tailor training schedules to firm-specific needs. The program creates a space for labor and management to exchange information, solve problems together, and to innovate processes. This can have positive spillover effects for the entire firm. According to Kessenich, “As people begin their apprenticeships, they begin to engage with educational processes. Even going to parts of the plant that they're not exposed to in their work, and learning about what other people are doing, they realize that there are new opportunities available to them. And there's going to be an opportunity for mentoring processes where people will recognize workplace issues that can be worked on to prevent discrimination, even micro-discrimination. People will be given the opportunity not only to be better workers in their occupation, but to be valuable parts of their company.”

Structure of the Program: Recruitment into the IMT

Successfully recruitment of production workers into the program means successfully extending opportunity to women and people of color. Initial recruitment when apprenticeship is introduced to a firm can be challenging, as the preconception that apprenticeships are the domain of white men is still pervasive in many industries. This understanding of apprenticeship is rooted in experience in manufacturing – white male workers are the dominant demographic who are in apprenticeships or working as journeymen. In the IMT, the first cohort of workers accepted into the program helped change the face of apprenticeship. Early participants recruit future classes, and as the program becomes established within firms, these networks change the face of manufacturing apprenticeship.

Structure of the Program: Training

Practical on-the-job learning takes place through the daily interaction between an apprentice and their co-workers. IMT apprentices operate industrial production-related equipment, work with manufacturing-related tools, and perform work processes related to a wide variety of manufacturing settings. Involvement in these activities teaches apprentices to set up, operate, monitor, and control production equipment and helps improve manufacturing processes and schedules to meet customer requirements.