n WORKFORCE
P
ete Oxenham, president of Roseville-based Fully
For construction contractors, the lack of skilled trades-
Torqued Racing, has time to talk — but only on Sun- people is obvious. Any position requiring three to five years
days.
of experience is tough to fill, says Kearston Vargas of Blue
The rest of the week he’s busy keeping up with de- Mountain Enterprises in Vacaville, citing carpenters, paint-
mand for the company’s custom parts for race cars ers, stucco specialists, HVAC techs, drywallers, plumbers
and emerging transportation startups. He has five employ- and solar installers. “Really, it’s all of the skilled labor that
ees and desperately needs another programmer-operator for we hire for that we struggle with,” she says.
his high-tech Computer Numeric Control machines that turn
out components. Because he’s had no luck finding someone, REVIVING INDUSTRIAL ARTS
he says he’s working more than 100 hours a week to keep up.
The erosion of high-school vocational-tech programs start-
He’s not alone; industries around the Capital Region ing in the 1990s contributed to reducing the skills pipeline.
are feeling the same pinch. In the last few years, industry Nationally, the percentage of students who earned course
and educators have stepped up efforts to attract more peo- credits in construction and architecture, manufacturing, or
ple to skilled trades and match them with training and ap- repair and transportation fell from about 40 percent in 1990
prenticeship programs. But it’s unclear if it will be enough to 28 percent in 2009, the latest year for which the govern-
to win over a culture that often looks down on blue-collar ment has data.
work and whether wage levels will be sufficient to draw big
Some school districts are reviving the industrial arts.
numbers to these jobs.
One example is the $14.5-million career technical educa-
Inability to fill blue-col-
tion center under construc-
lar, middle-skill jobs crimps
tion at Folsom High School,
the region’s economy. Re-
where students will learn
cent reports by the Cali-
manufacturing,
engineer-
fornia community college
ing and architecture skills.
system’s local research arm
Scheduled for completion in
put numbers to the shortage
2020, the 20,000-square-foot
of specialists in manufac-
facility will feature six CNC
turing, construction, and
machines, four lathes, four
maintenance and repair. In
welding stations, a grinder,
the Sacramento region, 80-
a f loor mill and more. “We’re
90 percent of manufacturers
not aware of another high
report moderate to extreme
school that’s going to have
— Rick Larkey, executive director,
difficulty hiring CNC opera-
a stand-alone facility ded-
tors and machinists. For auto
icated to manufacturing,”
North State Building Industry Foundation
service technicians, 900 jobs
says Angela Griffin Ankhe-
will open annually through
lyi, community engagement
at least 2022 in the 22-county region that includes Sacramen- specialist for Folsom Cordova Unified School District.
to County. And the region faces a shortage of more than 7,000
The center will support the district’s investments in new
construction workers a year through 2021.
technical classes. In the 2018-19 school year, Folsom High
Garner Products, a local manufacturer of data security launched the first of a two-course sequence in product in-
equipment, makes its own parts to control quality. The short- novation and design. And the district is planning a four-
age of CNC programmer-machinists means periodically out- week summer internship program this month, says district
sourcing parts procurement, driving up product costs, says Career Technical Education Coordinator Alicia Caddell.
company Vice President Michelle Stofan.
Access to equipment can launch careers. When Oxen-
Precision manufacturer Stewart Tool Company in Ran- ham was attending Rocklin High School, there was no for-
cho Cordova is advertising out of state for pipe welders and mal CNC curriculum, but he had an instructor who knew his
CNC machinists. “It really makes me nervous,” says Qual- stuff and gave him seat time on a CNC machine. That kind
ity Manager Amber Stewart. “A lot of the guys that we rely of practice on a tool that costs into the five and six figures
on every day are approaching retirement age within the is rare. “On day one, kids can pop in a block of aluminum,
next five years. They’re the leads of the department.” (Na- hit a green button, and the machine revs up, starts moving
tionally, welders average 39 years old and machinists 47.)
it around, creating it, and making chips and all this noise,
“It’s our responsibility as an
industry to get our own workers
and to compete with everybody else
to make a case that we’re the best
industry with the best kind of jobs.”
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comstocksmag.com | June 2019