When seeking a long-term, stable career, it’s essential to do your best research into the industry’s future outlook where your interests lie. When it comes to a career in manufacturing, the current global and national economy can play a significant role in career outlook and potential job growth.

What is a Long Term Career Outlook?

First, let’s define what we mean when we talk about long term career outlook. The Balance Careers defines job outlook as, “a forecast of the change in the number of people employed by a particular occupation over a set period.” Essentially, job outlook boils down to whether or not specific industries, such as manufacturing, are primed to see growth or a decline in their current workforce over a future period, and if jobs will soon be available or terminated due to changing economic conditions and technologies.

When researching job outlook, there are various resources at your disposal. The top resource in the United States is the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Here, you’ll find significant and enlightening information, statistics, and articles compiled to help you fully understand the short and long term job outlooks across various industries. Now that we’ve brushed up on our economic knowledge, let’s take a closer look at the job outlook within manufacturing.

Be Part of the Next Generation

At this very moment, manufacturing companies are preparing for a massive reduction within the industry’s workforce due to aging and retiring employees. In fact, according to Industry Week, Baby Boomers are retiring from all sectors at a rate of 10,000 a day in the United States.

Not only is this generation of workers taking their leave from the manufacturing industry forever, but they are also taking their industry knowledge and foundational technical skills with them. This means that there will be open job gaps that must be filled to support the industry. If the next generation of manufacturing workers, technicians, and machinist aren’t trained, prepared, and enthusiastic about joining the workforce, it could drive an industry-wide crisis by 2025.

Now, this forecast may sound a bit doom-and-gloom. Still, here at the Northeast Advanced Manufacturing Consortium (NAMC), we know that these stats present a lucrative opportunity to propel real advancement and innovation within the industry. Furthermore, we are excited at the prospect of training and developing bright, young minds into qualified manufacturing workers, supporting the industry, the Northeast, and the United States’ Economy.

According to the Harvard Business Review, “modern products require high degrees of specialization.” Technology is advancing rapidly and requires a new generation of manufacturers to wield innovative manufacturing tools to create advanced products that are actually used to create a better, more efficient, and productive world. By utilizing a younger, ready-to-go trained workforce, our industry will grow and flourish more than ever before, putting the correct tools into informed and technically-savvy hands.

For these reasons, the NAMC initiative has come together to create the Advanced Manufacturing Training Expansion Program or AMTEP.

The Advanced Manufacturing Training Expansion Program has been put in place by the NAMC to expand manufacturing training opportunities on the North Shore to full capacity over five years and sustain this effort well into the future. With AMTEP, we plan on filling those gaps left by a generation of retiring workers with fully-trained, motivated, and well-adjusted workers, ready to make a difference within the industry, sustaining job growth and industry success.

415 HOURS OF HANDS-ON TECHNICAL TRAINING

Students and trainees within the program receive over 415 hours of hands-on technical training with industry experts. The training is hosted at numerous community colleges and vocational schools throughout the region. Optional foundation training is offered alongside English as a Second Language (ESL) course. The training also includes tours of manufacturing facilities in the area to get a firsthand look at where manufacturing products are created.

EDUCATIONAL FACILITIES THROUGHOUT THE NORTH SHORE

We’ve partnered with the best community colleges and vocational institutions across the North Shore and surrounding areas such as Middlesex Community College, Bunker Hill Community College, Northern Essex Community College, and many more. This ensures that our students are provided with accessible courses at easy to locate locations. We understand that many of our current and prospective trainees potentially work within tight time constraints. Our educational partners work with every individual to create a course plan that fits within their schedule.

SUCCESSFUL MANUFACTURING INDUSTRY BUSINESS PARTNERS

AMTEP is only possible due to the collaborative effort between our various successful business partners and manufacturers such as GE Aviation, Innovent Technologies, the Boyd Corporation, and many others. NAMC business partners are committed to nurturing and training the next generation of manufacturing workforces today, contributing their businesses, knowledge, and facilities to the NAMC and AMTEP.

Manufacturing Nurtures Income, Stability, & Job Growth

After graduating from AMTEP, graduates are poised to make an entry-level starting wage of $18 per hour. The skills and knowledge passed down from the program allow graduates to work hard and raise their wages to $35 per hour in as little as four years within the industry.

Unsurprisingly, 95% of graduates have been placed into successful manufacturing positions, a number that we are incredibly proud of. This percentage also proves that young adults far-and-wide are interested in manufacturing careers, but only require the tools and motivation to make the leap and receive the training.

With the industry growing more and more technologically advanced, manufacturing provides job growth and training opportunities to all who seek it. Every new innovation requires a master to wield it, and within various manufacturing facilities, you’ll find that training to be that master. The job growth stops only when you choose to stop.

Be Part of “Made in America”

We must place enormous responsibility and priority upon bringing manufacturing back to America. Machinists and technicians are ready and willing to create “the next big thing,” or to contribute their part to everyday products and services required by hundreds of thousands of people within the country and around the world. AMTEP trainees are currently creating medical equipment that will save lives, aerospace components that will reach the stars, or vehicle parts that will transport Americans far and wide. Manufacturing is part of the fabric of America, and so are its workers.

So, the long term job outlook for manufacturing careers? The sky’s the limit.