KENDALLVILLE — Area industry representatives on a panel at Thursday’s Northeast Indiana Regional Economic Development Forum said their companies have job vacancies, but few qualified applicants.
Jennifer Fisher, Group Dekko’s culture and retention manager in Garrett, and Julie Carmichael, human resources director for Metaldyne BSM LLC in Fremont, said they have been looking to fill engineering positions at their companies for months.
Kevin Franks, plant manager at Graphic Packaging International in Kendallville, said his company is having difficulty finding qualified employees.
They participated in a panel discussion at the forum attended by some 140 area business and industry representatives, elected officials and economic development practitioners.
Franks said he believes one reason for a shortage of qualified machinists and manufacturing workers is the image high school graduates have that the work and environment are dirty, the pay is poor and the hours are long. “That’s no longer true,” he said.
Skilled labor is hard to come by, and graduates who may be thinking about college should consider manufacturing, even internships, he advised.
“We struggle to find people for the production floor,” Franks said.
Metaldyne needs workers skilled in CNC machining, who can earn a very good wage, said Carmichael, adding, “You don’t have to be high up in a company to earn a viable income and take care of your family.”
Fisher said it’s a struggle to find workers. It’s sometimes takes more than 90 days for Group Dekko to fill a job vacancy. She agreed with Franks that not enough young people are thinking about manufacturing jobs.
Group Dekko has partnered with East Noble High School to give sophomore-through-senior students experience in manufacturing.
“It’s like an internship. They experience all aspects of the manufacturing process, and we hope that when they graduate, they will come to work for us,” Fisher said.
Group Dekko also has introduced an internship program to train people for skilled positions.
“I think sometimes we spend too much time looking for the perfect person, when we could take someone and train them,” Fisher said.
Other speakers at the forum were: Dick Heupel, director of the Center for Economic and Community Development at Ball State University; Gary Gatman, executive vice president with the Northeast Indiana Regional Workforce Investment Board; Melissa Carpenter, executive director of Freedom Academy; and Tim Holcomb, director of IMPACT Institute, formerly known as the Four County Area Vocational Cooperative.