Making the Products that Change the World

Tomorrow is National Manufacturing Day - a day set aside every year to recognize the women and men who make the products that change the world and celebrate those who experiment, invent and create. Although for me and my Dow colleagues, every day is manufacturing day.

When experts and industry-watchers talk about the state of American manufacturing, they often mention the $2 trillion that manufacturing contributes to the U.S. economy each year. Or the fact that, if the U.S. manufacturing sector was a national economy, it would be the ninth-largest on the planet.

These are telling data points. They illustrate why America’s resurgent manufacturing sector is a cornerstone of our 21st-century economy, and why we must pursue a comprehensive policy agenda – including tax reform, focused regulations, favorable trade agreements, and infrastructure investment – to spur short- and long-term growth.

But more compelling than any policy argument or data point, in my view, is what the 12.3 million American manufacturing employees actually do each day. We invent. We build. We innovate. We disrupt. We MAKE.

Manufacturing means digitalization, advanced analytics, and the Internet of Things. It means using cutting-edge technologies and materials to create products that change the world and the way we live in it – from self-driving cars, to complex robots used in life-saving surgeries, to wind turbines that can power entire cities without generating carbon emissions.

The entire team that makes these extraordinary products – including those who build, maintain and operate our production plants like welders, process technicians, pipefitters and electricians – must now possess a level of skill, proficiency, and technological know-how that comes only through extensive, hands-on experience with robotics, computers, data analytics, applied mathematics, and advanced problem-solving.

Manufacturing careers, in other words, are the high-tech, high-skill, high-paying careers of today and tomorrow. And American manufacturers are creating them in abundance: the sector as a whole is expected to add a total of 3.5 million jobs over the next decade. Yet an alarming number of these positions – as high as two million– will go unfilled due to a lack of qualified candidates.

Plainly said, there is not a shortage of good careers, but a shortage of candidates who have been trained in the new skills that modern manufacturing requires. Already, 99 percent of the new jobs created in the U.S. from 2008 to 2016 require some form of post-secondary education or training. In fact, with fewer than 10 percent of students at U.S. colleges and universities majoring in STEM fields, it is clear that higher education alone cannot and will not close the skills gap.

To prepare America’s workforce for these careers of the future, we need a different approach: a renewed focus on the kinds of apprenticeship and career-focused education programs that can help us build this essential piece of our skills pipeline. Individual companies have a role to play. We at Dow are embracing ours. For instance, our U.S. Apprenticeship Program has grown to 130 apprentices across four states. Through partnerships with local community colleges, these apprentices work toward an associate’s degree in one of three specialized fields – with their tuition fully paid by Dow – while receiving three years of world-class training and on-the-job experience.

Of course, no single company or sector can tackle America’s workforce challenges on its own. We all must work together at the intersections of business, government, and civil society to provide the education and training that is needed to be successful in today’s economy. After all, closing the skills gap is not just about strengthening U.S. manufacturing; it is about building the workforce of tomorrow. It is critically important to every sector of our economy. And it presents a once-in-a-generation opportunity for the U.S. to lead the way.