November 2019 Volume 1

MEMBERS SPEAK

The Power of Two By Alex Jennings I hope you enjoyed reading the cover article and learned how the Forging Foundation of FIA (FIERF) has been instrumental in attracting new talent into the forging industry. And yes that’s right – I believe in the power of the two : the two year community college/trade school and two approaches to educating the future workforce in the forging industry -- two year and four year schools. Not to mention the power of two organizations – FIA and FIERF – working side-by-side for the benefit of the industry. Two Year Community Colleges and Trade Schools Spend anytime with me and you’ll learn what an advocate I am of our industry focusing on community colleges and trade schools. I may be a product of a fine Big Ten school (Penn State University) but daily I feel the need to step up our efforts to attract skilled labor into our precision rolled ring operations. Machine operators, forging operators, machinists, and maintenance are the key personnel handling our customer’s products and we must invest in attracting these talented folks into our companies. For several years I’ve served on the Workforce Development Foundation Board for Bucks County Community College (BCCC) – my local community college. As a result of our innovative recruitment efforts and partnerships, Specialty Ring Products (SRP) has hired 13 BCCC students. The college is heavily invested in a manufacturing career path for students and will soon break ground on a newWorkforce Development Center to serve the region.

For SRP, working with BCCC has led to some changes in their workforce demographics and skills:

• The workforce is younger; • Has stronger technical skills; • Has improved problem solving skills; • Hits the ground running; • Is more highly engaged leading to higher retention.

Our partnership with BCCC has certainly paid dividends for SRP. I’ve also made a point of getting to FIA’s Lobby Day program to meet with my Congressman and Senators, which led to a recent visit from our Pennsylvania Congressman Brian Fitzpatrick (pictured below with BCCC reps). Mark your calendar now for FIA’s 2020 Lobby Day on February 25-26. Getting engaged with educators and lawmakers is the best way to tackle our workforce development challenges. No one else is going to solve our issues; we need to be activists when it comes to recruiting and developing our workforce! FIA’s Partnership with its Foundation, FIERF When the boards of FIA and FIERF worked with a facilitator to complete strategic plans (2018) I was not surprised to see both boards focus on workforce development at the operator level. FIA’s Foundation got off to a strong start in 2019 hosting workforce development summits at Cuyahoga Community College (Cleveland) and Richard J. Daley College (Chicago), and has an aggressive plan for 2020 to spread out across the country impacting schools closest to our member companies. I’m sure many of you are already working with your local schools. We want to amp that up with the support of FIA and FIERF. (Cont' d on next page)

FIA MAGAZINE | NOVEMBER 2019 55