Firms look for skilled tech workers
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No Comments [ Add Comment ]By JEFF DEMOSS
Standard-Examiner staff
jdemoss@standard.net
Officials meet to formulate strategies
OGDEN -- Local business leaders say they have made progress in their efforts to alleviate a shortage of skilled technical workers in the Top of Utah, but much more needs to be done to fill hundreds of vacant, high-paying jobs in the area.
Officials from local companies, business groups and higher education institutions met Monday to discuss a new strategy for getting more high school students involved in machining, welding and other critical manufacturing skills.
"Northern Utah has begun to experience critical shortages of certain types of skilled labor, and the problem is expected to worsen in the coming years," said Steve Petersen, president and chief executive of Petersen Inc. in Farr West.
Late last year, Petersen looked to Pocatello, Idaho, for an expansion that is expected to employ 100 by June 1.
"We wanted to keep it here locally, but the people just weren't available," he said.
Last September, Williams International and Ogden-Weber Applied Technology College opened a new, $30-million training facility for lean manufacturing techniques at Business Depot Ogden.
About 400 students have already received some form of training at the center, OWATC president Collette Mercier said.
"All of the students in our machining program have the opportunity to come here, and we can do specialized, custom-fit training for individual companies," Mercier said.
Students at the center already produce jet engine parts for Williams, which contributed most of the equipment for the facility.
"We could use 25 more machinists right now at Williams," said Lloyd McCaffrey, the company's director of manufacturing technology.
A $40,000 marketing budget will be used, among other things, to counter a popular misperception that technical jobs are dirty and labor intensive.
"People don't understand. They think these jobs are dirty and grimy, when they are really high-tech, engaging careers," said Rhonda Boren, vice president of student services for OWATC.
An advertisement for the college's machining program features a young woman seated on a shiny, chopper-style motorcycle, which Boren said more accurately reflects the nature of technical careers today.
"We're making it more sexy."
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