Advanced Manufacturing Job Opportunities Through “Middle-Skill” STEM Education

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Advanced Manufacturing Job Opportunities Through “Middle-Skill” STEM Education

In recent years there’s been a lot of talk about STEM education.  STEM comprises Science – Technology – Engineering – Math and sometimes is called STEAM when Art is added into the mix in order to include the design component.  STEM education is important because more and more studies demonstrate that in the next industrial revolution, the US is going to experience a shortfall of workers with the requisite STEM skills to fill jobs.

With the addition of new digital fabrication technologies, such as laser micromachining and 3D Printing, to the factory floor, manufacturing jobs in particular call for workers with strong STEM education.  Interestingly, the new tools being implemented are often automated and the workers who run them do not need advanced degrees.  These operators who have an underlying STEM-based skillset can enter the workforce with a high school diploma or associate’s degree at a pay scale averaging 61% higher than workers in non-STEM jobs with similar education.  Entry-level STEM-based jobs also foster educational advancement to advanced degrees in engineering and other manufacturing areas, often paid for by employers.

Realizing that much of the social issues in our cities are caused by the unemployment or under-employment of our youth, the Greater Baltimore Committee and Associated Black Charities recently conducted an in-depth study of how we can provide pathways to what they term “middle-skill” careers.  Potomac is proud to have been a part of the study since our work depends upon the strong STEM skills of our digital fabrication equipment operators. Advanced Manufacturing, which encompasses all that we do here at Potomac, was identified as one of the six sectors with opportunity for middle-skill STEM jobs and recommendations for providing a pipeline to those jobs were included in the report.

Potomac has long recognized the opportunity in Advanced Manufacturing for our community and has a unique relationship with the Community College of Baltimore County [CCBC] and the University of Maryland, Baltimore County [UMBC].  Hiring interns from the CCBC Fab Lab, we are able to give students in associate degree programs the hands-on STEM skills they need to fill new Advanced Manufacturing and Digital Fabrication jobs.  We also work with UMBC to bring in engineering students and give them experience in the design and development of our newest tools and processes.

At Potomac, it is the production operators in laser micromachining, CNC machining, 3D Printing and other advanced manufacturing processes that actually get the parts out the door for our customers.  These employees are key to the success of the company and good STEM education is imperative to our continued success.

To read the complete STEM education report, please go to:

https://gbc.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/GBC-ABC-STEM-report-2016.pdf