Industrial Skills Training to Dictate the Future

Manufacturers have long been playing the waiting game when it comes to hiring new employees. The question is consistently whether to hire then train or to wait for the properly trained employee to come along. Well, the problem with the latter is that as the Baby Boomer generation continues to retire, older skilled workers are going to be hard to come by. According to the National Association of Manufacturers, a third of manufacturers are already facing relatively serious shortages of skilled employees left in the labor pool. So the only answer is to recruit, develop and maintain a talented workforce.

In order to develop and maintain a workforce rich in industrial training skills, top level managers must realize that the culture of their plant may also need to adapt to the younger industrial worker. Instead of a command and control environment, the younger generation responds better to working as a team.

When it comes to hiring, manufacturers need to look at the long term rather than the immediate. Although an employee that has extensive industrial skills upon hiring may seem ideal, technology is constantly changing and retraining will be required at some point. So then, why not train new hires properly when they first hit the plant floor? By developing the industrial skill sets of committed workers, younger employees can see the potential path ahead of them and in turn work harder to achieve those goals. But in order for them to reach those ambitions they must not only work hard but also efficiently and productively. By providing industrial skills training, manufacturers will benefit their business and their workforce. The return on investment is obvious, as productivity is bound to increase when abled and knowledgeable employees are working the plant floor.

So in today’s high tech society how do we supply training skills to new hires in an easy and accessible format? SCORM (Sharable Content Object Reference Model) based e learning systems make this simple. With SCORM online courseware is required to meet specific software standards so that trainees can access modules from an office computer or even their home computer. SCORM also makes it easy for plant managers to track their progress and update the courseware. In a quickly evolving world, SCORM makes delivering online industrial training simple and effective.

Image courtesy of FreeDigitalPhotos.net & DigitalArt