A major union dispute between Boeing and its employees has hopefully come to a resolution. The unionized workers of Boeing voted to extend a four year long contract that aims to stabilize labor relations while the company plans production of their planes for the next few years. The deal developed by Boeing during several secret meetings that took place over the past few weeks will ensure the new 737 will continue to...
The world is beginning to adapt the newer multi-sensory learning technologies as the better approach to education and training, particularly when skills acquisition is an ultimate goal. Many of the foundation skills and competencies — later, so critical to the workplace — can be achieved through the use of technology in the classroom, K-12 and beyond. Students using technology demonstrate any number of improvements: more confidence, higher motivation, peer mentoring, collaboration, and...
There are a plethora of training delivery choices available to you today. In addition to the print and lecture choices you can make, several technology choices are available. It’s the technology choices that make the most sense since we know, without argument, two big things today: 1) more than 40% of our workforce does not assimilate what they read if the material has been written at a greater than 4th Grade reading...
With the beginning of a new month comes the statistics of the past month. And this year, they’re looking positive. Thanks to an increase in new orders and production, U.S. factories saw the greatest increase in business since June 2011. Washington reported that manufacturing has increased for the past 28 consecutive months. The Department of Labor said that the number of unemployment applications increased to approximately 400,000 last week, the greatest increase...
So — you discover that your organization needs training in a specific subject. You go to the internet and search the web for vendors that supply training on that subject. You then look at the price each vendor charges for their particular solution. And then you buy the title that comes with the cheapest price. Voilà! Nothing to it — right?!? Just pick out an appropriate title that costs the least amount...
Last week General Motors announced they will start manufacturing the Chevrolet Equinox at its plant in Tennessee. They also plan to start producing additional midsized cars there in the near future. The $244 million investment is expected to create almost 1,900 jobs at the former Saturn plant located just outside of Nashville. To get the ball rolling, General Motors will initially invest $61 million and plans to generate nearly 700 jobs to...
Unfortunately, many of our current practitioners of E-Learning are focused on “the process” and, no longer, on “the learner!” The result is a decline in technology instruction as a significant contributor to the would-be learner. Videotape, interactive laser videodisc, DVD and CD-ROM — all! — contributed to the advances in skills education and training. But, with E-Learning (as it is too often currently practiced) we have taken a big step backward. The...
With the economy seemingly inching towards recovery, manufacturing managers seem to be more confident in posting more job positions. However, as we discussed previously, filling these positions with skilled workers has proven to be a difficult task. Many prospective hires are in fact hard working individuals eager to work. But often they lacked the essential skills necessary to work effectively and efficiently in a plant. So, how can manufacturers ensure their new...
EDUCATION PAYS! Breaking down the October U.S. unemployment numbers we find that: a) there is a better than 14% unemployment rate for Americans who do not have a high school diploma; b) the rate is close to 10% for high school graduates; and, c) for those who have one, or more, college degrees the rate is right around 4%. IS RESHORING BECOMING REALITY? In a recent “Hartford Business” article by Brad Kane,...
When it comes to training industrial employees, creating a program that is tailored to your organizations specific needs is key. If your training initiatives are not planned with your employees in mind, there’s a good chance you will not achieve your desired outcome. As a manager your priority is to make sure the implemented training program is effective and maximizes your return on investment. Here are a few tips to ensure your...
The training requirements of today’s workplace are intensifying. A recent National Adult Literacy Survey (NALS) undertaken by the Department Of Education has reported that, “Growing numbers of individuals are expected to be able to attend to multiple features of information in lengthy and sometimes complex displays, to compare and contrast information, to integrate information from various parts of a text or document, to generate ideas and information based on what they read,...
The Labor Department reports the number of unemployment applications fell in the first week of November. The number of applications dropped to the lowest level since April 2011. The drop in applications may be an indication that employers are beginning to feel comfortable hiring again. Additionally, the Commerce Department announced the U.S trade deficit reached its lowest point of the year in September 2011. With foreign sales of American machinery reaching an...
Last week, we addressed the issue of “Basic Skills” training as an overlooked — but, critically necessary — part of any successful training program. In fact, it should be the initial focus of all workforce learning. A solid background in fundamentals such as work practice, proper tool use, applied industrial mathematics, reading and writing are all critical elements in any meaningful skills training program. However, the desired goal of any skills training...
Organizations, generally, do a good job of task-specific training — where a specific problem has been identified and, then, a training initiative is immediately implemented in order to fix that problem. Likewise, organizations often lay out successful task-specific training paths for new hires and for the retraining of existing employees in multi-craft responsibilities. However, most companies are not so good at improving the basic knowledge skills required for every job within the...