Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) fields are becoming increasingly vital to ensuring a global competitive edge and growth for the U.S. economy. In fact, scientific innovation has produced roughly half of all U.S. economic growth in the last 50 years.

As technology advances, so should worker skill levels. Yet many employers struggle to find employees with the right skillsets to fill open positions. One troubling statistic revealed that while today’s educators believe their STEM graduates finish school with 70 percent of the employable skills needed in the marketplace, employers believe that number to be closer to 50 percent.

The concern over such a skills gap is nothing new to employers or educators. Many now seek to resolve the U.S. workforce challenge by placing a focus on students early on in their education. But educators struggle to engage students in higher levels of education, resulting in a depreciating loss of interest in STEM fields amongst upper class students. Additionally, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, only about half of those who have degrees related to engineering, computers, math and statistics actually end up in a STEM job.

At Genesis Plastics Welding, we believe employers in STEM-related industries have a responsibility to invest in workforce development and to create a pipeline of qualified workers. Through our work with Employment Aid Readiness Network (EARN) Indiana and Indiana InternNet, we are able to provide internships that offer real world, hands-on skills that supplement classroom learning – something we would encourage other employers to do as well.

“Business has a huge stake in education,” said Jock McKernan, president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation. “Think about it, businesses are the single largest consumer of our school systems. And without a steady flow of talent, we can’t drive economic growth, we can’t propel innovation, we can’t advance American competitiveness or create opportunities for American workers.”
In addition to our internship program, on October 15^th, we are opening our doors for the Exploring Advanced Manufacturing Solutions in Hancock County Indianaevent. We will be joining Rose-Hulman, theFortville/McCordsville Chamber of Commerce, the Hancock Economic Development Council, Bastian Solutions and Proportion Air in putting on an event aimed to excite students about the opportunities within the field of advanced manufacturing.

Another way we employers help combat the skills gap is by helping our existing workforce continue their education. For a number of years, we have provided our full-time, salaried employees with a tuition reimbursement program. Our employees must maintain a C-or-better average, and the courses must be considered mutually beneficial to both GPW and the employee, directly relating to the employee’s current job and enhancing work-related skills. To date, several of our employees have taken advantage of this program and found it to be a great benefit both personally and professionally. Another way we aim to continue the education and development of our employees is to introduce different LMS solutions to further educate our employees in the skills and knowledge necessary for ever-growing and increasingly complex job roles.

Building a quality workforce pipeline begins with promoting the necessary training and passing along the passion we have for our careers to the next generation. Rather than be bystanders, we’ve taken a stance to combat the skills gap and invite other employers to do the same. A strong economy begins with a well-educated workforce, and Genesis Plastics Welding is proud to be a part of Indiana’s strong economy and workforce-education efforts.