Salt Lake City — Utah’s manufacturing community is committed to developing a skilled manufacturing workforce. As part of that commitment, Utah Manufacturers Association employers have led efforts this past year to create, track, and evaluate a targeted education and messaging campaign for talent pipeline development.
Through a $250,000 grant provided by DWS as well as financial and in-kind contributions from Utah manufacturers, over 400 companies and eight Utah post-secondary institutions piloted a comprehensive statewide outreach and messaging campaign: “Make Manufacturing Your Future”. The major objectives for the campaign were: (a) educate adult learners and graduating high school students about manufacturing as a valid career pathway; (b) increase statewide enrollment in technician level manufacturing training within one year by 150 students. Utah Manufacturers Association used a baseline of 674 total students enrolled Sept. 30, 2016 with a pilot goal to enroll 824 students by Sept. 30, 2017. As of July 21st, the number of new enrollees in programs such as advanced manufacturing, automation, welding, and CNC machining totaled 1,612 statewide, exceeding the project goal by 938 new enrollees. Approximately 33% of these new enrollees represented high school students who opted to jump start education through concurrent manufacturing coursework from a regional post-secondary institution.