| Skilled Workers Fortune Magazine,
Industrial Issue
When Maciak and his associates brought together executives of 17 metalworking companies to see what could be done, they heard high praise for the adult evening courses at Steel Center Vocational Technical, a high school in suburban Clairton. About three years ago, Paul Anselmo, the head of that program, agreed to work with the metal companies and devise a 525-hour beginning machinist course that could be taught after school hours at shops in high schools and community colleges. They include the machine shop at Steel Center Vo-Tech, which has been spruced up and equipped with new and over hauled tools, thanks largly to to a local foundation. By running the programs after school hours, MANUFACTURING 2000 not only uses shops that would otherwise be vacant but also gives its students time to hold down a job and cover living expenses. Nearly 104 companies have signed an agreement with MANUFACTURING 2000 to open their plants to student tours, participate in job fairs, and pay $1,250 a piece for successful hires. Last year the program's administrators asked manufacturers what other skills they needed. Welders were at the top of the list, followed by electronic assemblers (western Pennsylvania isn't all melters, bangers, and benders). MANUFACTURING 2000 now has a 15- week welding course and seven-week one in electronics assembly. With a full-time staff of only seven, the program has trained hundreds of people who have been grabbed by eager employers. What most distinguishes MANUFACTURING 2000 is professional marketing carried out by Elliot Marketing Group, a small shop that also works with the University of Pittsburgh's Medical Center and the city's opera. By analyzing the results of promotion, the group now knows the phases that pull in applicant: "free training," "short time," and "jump -start a great career." It also knows whom to target. Half the student are under 30, 20% have attended college, two third earned under $10 an hour in their last job, and a big contrast with other cities - most are single white males. The program never lets a hot lead go cold. Says Maciak: "We aggressively go after people and make sure that they get in and don't get lost." Those who request information but don't reserve a place at a seminar explaining the program get a call. If they sign up for the seminar but don't show, they get a call about the rescheduling. If they attend but don't apply for the program, they will be asked why. From fall 1998 to this spring, the program generated 4, 300 requests for informtion. Three out of four inquirers signed up for a seminar, but a third never came. Then 920 put in an application, two out of three took the required test, and 20% of those failed. Of the 360 who actually started a class, 10% dropped out. At the end of the line, despite early warnings some couldn't pass the drug tests. Final result: 277 got and held jobs. MANUFACTURING 2000 is now a part of a new nonprofit enterprise, New Century Careers, NC², as it likes to call itself, is run by Anselmo, who has left the school system. It has just taken management of the National Tooling and Machining Association 's apprencticeship program in the region, which has been filling up MANUFACTURING 2000 grads. It has received $1 million grant from the Labor Department to explore other approaches to training. And it is expanding the MANUFACTURING 2000 program through four southwestern Pennsyvania counties, with the hope of training 1,000 students a year. Silva Baretta, Barry Maciak's consulting partner, neverthless worries that "maybe we have already picked the low hanging fruit." This
article is reprinted with the permission of Fortune Magazine, Industrial
Issue. |
In
Pittsburgh, the founders of MANUFACTURING 2000 realized early on
that even if you give away training, you still have to market it
with the same drive and techniques used to sell anything else. Their
program grew out of meetings in the mid-1990s of Pittsburgh-area
manufacturers that were organized by Barry Maciak, a local consultant
who serves as executive director of the Institute for Economic Transformation,
part of Duquesne University's business school. Maciak recalls that
"guys would always bitch about how they couldn't find a good
work force." 
