Staying Alive: How a Wisconsin Company Bridges the Skills Gap
If there’s a sign that accurately sums up the state of running a manufacturing business over the course of the last couple of decades, it’s got to be “Now Hiring!” Industry, as a whole, and manufacturing, in particular, have long suffered from a challenge known as the “skills gap.”
Without treading familiar ground too thoroughly, the “skills gap” describes the fact that demand for highly-skilled workers far outweighs the supply of such workers, leading to hundreds of thousands of manufacturing jobs that go unfilled year after year.
The “skills gap” is a well-known problem that manufacturers have been battling for decades now. While there have been many attempts to solve the problem, an all-encompassing solution still eludes manufacturers. Nonetheless, there have been some efforts that have been more successful than others.
In this article, we’ll take a closer look at Sentry Equipment, a Wisconsin manufacturer of process and sampling equipment. Despite the challenges posed by the “skills gap,” the leaders of Sentry Equipment have used a combination of techniques that have helped them successfully fill all their open positions.
In an Industry Week article, author Laura Putre discusses the history of Sentry Equipment, revealing that “[b]eing steady and respected in the market you’re in, but always having another angle in your back pocket, is a secret to business longevity.”
Sentry Equipment began over a century ago as a manufacturer of “boiler sanitizing equipment for the dairy industry.” As “dairy plants joined the electric grid and did away with boilers,” the company pivoted successfully as “the processing technology also had applications for the electric power industry.”
For years, Sentry Equipment has served both “coal-fired power plants” and “oil and gas refineries.” However, the ever-changing energy market has forced the company to continue to diversify. Over the last decade, Sentry Equipment “has acquired a couple of smaller companies in an adjacent market, wastewater treatment sampling and processing, while adding a service component for power plant equipment.”
Throughout these changes, Sentry Equipment has felt “the pain of smaller manufacturers that have trouble filling roles.” Currently, though, “no roles go unfilled, and the turnover rate is under 15%, thanks in part to investment in high-tech equipment like robotic machining centers and [its CEO’s] involvement in state and local organizations.”
These industry-education partnerships have been important in helping Sentry Equipment meet the challenge of the “skills gap.” For example, its CEO is “on the board of the Waukesha County Business Alliance, which runs a Schools2Skills program that has been bringing groups of high school students to tour Sentry’s Wisconsin facility for a dozen years, while also cultivating additional partnerships with high schools and colleges.”
When asked how he’s able to recruit and retain skilled workers, Sentry Equipment’s CEO gives examples of their targeted efforts to establish a talent pipeline. For example, the company “work[s] with GPS Partners, a nonprofit that was started by several Milwaukee manufacturers to build a high school pipeline. It targets students that are, say, juniors in high school, who might do better in a technical path than an academic path…We’ve been part of that for more than a dozen years. At any given time, we have three or four GPS students that are working in our plant.”
For more high-level positions, such as engineers, the company has “an engineering co-op program with Marquette University in Milwaukee. We always have about three or four co-op engineers working in our business.”
Together, these industry-education partnerships continue to help Sentry Equipment fill positions with skilled workers. They may also be helping to improve the overall view of manufacturing held by students and parents. As Sentry Equipment’s CEO notes, “[s]tudents, parents, educators, all can see the great benefit of having some sort of technical trade.”
What can also help bridge the skills gap—both on the industry side and the education side—is partnering with a proven expert to train current and prospective workers with the hands-on skills necessary to succeed on the job.
Fortunately, manufacturers don’t have to reinvent the wheel when it comes to effective training. Partnering with a training solutions provider with a proven track record can help any manufacturer or educational institution train workers with the hands-on skills they’ll need to hit the ground running in the workplace. For example, DAC Worldwide offers a wide variety of training systems that teach basic to advanced skills in a wide variety of areas relevant to manufacturing. From basic electrical and mechanical to advanced process control and instrumentation, DAC Worldwide offers training solutions that work. Visit DAC Worldwide online to learn more about its many training systems!
- Published in News
New Marine Corps Doctrine Promotes Education & Training
Click here to view New Marine Corps Doctrine Promotes Education & Training as a multimedia presentation.
The few. The proud. Who are we talking about? The Marines, of course. That particular recruiting slogan has been permanently etched into our memories over the years.
And it’s a great slogan. The Marines are legendary for a training regimen that weeds out all but the strongest, creating a fighting force to be reckoned with. Indeed, the Marines have been on the front lines of every major U.S. military campaign of the modern era.
To be prepared for the future, however, the Marines know that training the same way they have in the past will not be sufficient. That’s why a recent doctrinal publication puts a new focus on education and continued learning.
Industry, always closely connected to the military, would do well to put a renewed emphasis on education and training, too. In this article, we’ll take a closer look at how partnering with a trusted technical training company like DAC Worldwide can prepare your students, workers, soldiers, and sailors for a bright future.
A New Doctrine for a New Era
According to a Marine Corps Times article, “the Marine Corps unveiled the Marine Corps Doctrinal Publication 7 [MCDP 7] in February [2019] as the service aims to promote education, training, and continued learning among Marines so they become students of their profession.”
How significant was this doctrinal development? MCDP 7 was the first new doctrinal publication issued by the Marines since 2001. Its goal: “to motivate Marines to personally assess where they can improve and understand the ‘why’ behind the significance of learning.”
Maj. Gen. William Mullen was quoted as saying “that he’s heard Marines say they joined the service to escape an academic education. But the Corps wants its personnel to understand that the two complement one another and that education prepares Marines to think quickly when faced with challenges.”
According to Mullen, “You need both training and education. Training prepares you for things you know you’re going to have to do…But the education piece comes in when the unknown starts to happen, which it always does.” Mullen specifically referred to the fact that the environments Marines face today present challenges that are only growing more complex.
This new doctrinal change comes as “Commandant of the Marine Corps Gen. David Berger is working to remake the Corps to better compete with potential high-end adversaries…Berger wants a leaner force to conduct sea denial operations, survive in a contested maritime environment and serve as a larger Naval expeditionary force.”
It’s Not Just the Marines
Speaking of the Navy, the Marine Corps Times article notes that the Navy announced in May 2019 “that it was modifying fitness reports to reflect an individual’s educational and training accomplishments, including military education courses, professional and academic certifications, among other things.”
Like the Marines’ new focus on education and continued learning, the Navy’s modified fitness reports are meant to “show that career-long military learning isn’t only job-related technical or tactical training, and that a commitment to higher education will produce Navy leaders with more refined critical thinking skills,” according to an article in the Navy Times.
Future Navy fitness reports will thus document educational performance, including “[m]ilitary educational courses, civilian institution coursework, and professional and academic certifications.” Navy leadership also indicated they will also encourage additional informal efforts, such as learning new technologies.
It’s All COOL
It’s no coincidence that the Marines and the Navy would emphasize professional and academic certifications. Much of the training that military personnel receive prepares them for future civilian jobs.
Obtaining professional and academic certifications while in the military can make it easier for personnel to transition to civilian life when their service is finished. All branches of the military recognize the importance of certifications in making that transition as easy as possible.
For example, the Marine Corps COOL site (Marine Corps Credentialing Opportunities On-Line) helps Marines see how their military training and experience matches up with civilian credential requirements. Such credentials could include important and valuable advanced manufacturing credentials from entities like the National Institute of Metalworking Skills (NIMS) and the Manufacturing Skill Standards Council (MSSC).
Marines using the COOL site can see whether military funding is available to help attain particular credentials. They can also see how the training and skills they’ve already acquired might match up with specific credentials valued by employers, such as NIMS’ Industrial Technology Maintenance (ITM) certification or MSSC’s Certified Production Technician (CPT) certification. There are also COOL sites for the Army, Coast Guard, Navy, and Air Force.
Industry Must Also Evolve
Given the military’s new focus on education and continued learning, it’s important that industries that work with and support the military evolve in a similar fashion. The military-industrial complex consists of all sorts of industries that work closely with the military to help them accomplish their mission.
These industries should take a cue from their military counterparts and begin to develop a similar focus on education and continued learning among their workforce. Industry workers will only be able to continue to keep pace with their military counterparts if they’re also seeking new educational opportunities and learning new skills and technologies.
Pushing an industrial workforce or a military organization toward more education and greater skill development can be a daunting task. That’s why it’s imperative that both the military and their industrial counterparts seek out and rely upon the expertise of a trusted technical training partner.
A Trusted Education & Training Partner
DAC Worldwide is a US-based world leader in technical training solutions. For over 35 years, DAC Worldwide has been helping industrial employers and military organizations with realistic, hands-on training systems.
DAC Worldwide offers a wide range of product solutions to fit all your training needs. From training systems that teach a full range of skills to cutaways that increase understanding of how a component works, we have what you need.
For example, many military personnel work in the same skilled occupations as civilians. This means they need a solid foundation in various technologies, including electrical, electronics, fluid power, and mechanical drives.
Whether you train military personnel working on military bases or civilian crews with military contracts, DAC Worldwide’s military training solutions offer an unmatched range of products to allow you to create the course you need or to fill in any gaps that you have in your current training.
Let’s take a closer look at four specific DAC Worldwide products that can take your training program to the next level:
Lock-Out/Tag-Out Training System (811-000)
DAC Worldwide’s Lock-Out/Tag-Out Training System features a realistic, simulated working process environment that facilitates introductory training with hands-on activities related to the process of identifying and locking out sources of dangerous potential energy in an industrial setting. The training system includes two process tanks; a centrifugal pump; a complex, multi-purpose piping network; electrical controls; a variety of lockable system components; and a lock-out/tag-out kit that features a large number of commonly-encountered locking and tagging devices.
Basic Electricity Training System (400-PAC)
DAC Worldwide’s Basic Electricity Training System teaches basic AC and DC electrical principles. Learners will explore how electricity is used for power and control in various sectors. The trainer covers industry-relevant skills, such as installing, operating, and troubleshooting AC and DC electrical circuits in a variety of applications.
Piston Pump Cutaway (278-132)
DAC Worldwide’s Piston Pump Cutaway is an industrial piston pump that has been carefully sectioned and color-coded to train learners in the design, operation, construction, and maintenance of this common process pump used throughout industry. The cutaway exposes and showcases the complete internal configuration of an industrial piston pump. Moreover, seal features and bearings have been retained to allow realistic, hands-on pump maintenance and operation training.
Centrifugal Pump Cutaway (278-101)
DAC Worldwide’s Centrifugal Pump Cutaway is a sectioned centrifugal pump that provides realistic training in the operating principles, construction details, and maintenance of common centrifugal process pumps used throughout industry and the military. It includes various sectioned components, such as seals and bearings, as well as showcasing the pump’s impeller.
Contact DAC Worldwide Today
Is your organization ready to take its industrial technical training to the next level? Contact a DAC Worldwide expert today for a personal consultation regarding your training needs and how our variety of training systems, cutaways, dissectibles, and models can prepare both industrial workers and military personnel for the future challenges they face.
- Published in News