Adults With Prior Manufacturing Experience; Adrift In The Labor Market Heading Downward

Our economy functions best when workers are using their skills productively as skilled labor. There are presently over 8,000,000 former manufacturing workers who could greatly benefit from help reintegrating their present skills and abilities into our economy in meaningful ways. Putting aside the wrenching human consequences of downward mobility on individuals and their families, there are numerous reasons why a pool of millions of chronically underemployed experienced workers is societally undesirable.

Most manufacturing occupations involve occupational skills transferable to non-manufacturing settings. In a human capital marketing job search model, those with manufacturing experience in their job history are at a distinct disadvantage. It is difficult to express the many transferable skills used in manufacturing contexts to those whose experience has been in non-manufacturing settings. Without skill articulation, it's as if the person’s skills do not exist and s/he is semi or unskilled which is the debilitating stereotype of manufacturing workers as human robots. A massive skills hole is created in his/her adult work history that shouldn’t exist creating difficulties in competing for skilled positions paying living wages.

The Job Coach, with its skills transfer approach, translates skills used in manufacturing settings into non-manufacturing contexts. It contains a specially-designed interface to assist those involved in manufacturing to identify their former manufacturing occupations far more easily without outside assistance.

In the Job Coach experience, those involved in manufacturing are also provided assistance in articulating their productivity in terms that those in non-manufacturing settings can understand. This should not only make them more likely to be hired but also present them with stronger cases for receiving higher starting wages.

The skills transfer version of the Job Coach is available on all test websites.We encourage users to model themselves as veterans to see the important additional functionalities afforded our nation's service veterans.