St. Sen. William Larkin, right, heads the task force
NEWBURGH – Members of the New York State Senate Task Force on Workforce
Development, headed by Senator William Larkin, held a public hearing to
discuss ideas for the future of the Hudson Valley’s job market with
local industry leaders.
A major focus of the Newburgh hearing was aimed toward how to get the next generation of manufacturing professionals the training they need to be qualified for the surplus of job openings in the field as the Baby Boomer generation retires.
According to Larkin’s office, over the next decade, there will be a need for 3.5 million manufacturing jobs. An estimated 2 million of these positions are estimated to go unfilled due to lack of skills and interest in the younger generation.
Frank Falatyn, president of FALA Technologies, said he is afraid for his small Kingston-based manufacturing company for exactly this reason.
“I’m really scared for my company,” Falatyn told the task force. “We’ve been in business 68 years. The average age of our employees is 51 years old. We’re going to gray out and I have a lot very high skilled people which I can’t find young people to come into our trades and learn this technology [to fill their positions].”
Mary Jane Bertram, regional director for the Workforce Development Institute, said this is typical of Hudson Valley manufacturers who are not too small but, not large enough to sustain with a massive workforce loss. She suggested that a clustering method of training be used for companies like FALA Technologies. That would provide young people with the skills they need for a variety of manufacturing jobs in the area. This way, the companies can have a sustainable, skilled workforce and young people can have options for their careers.
Harold King, executive vice president of the Council of Industry, said the key to the manufacturing workforce crisis will lie in getting manufacturers and schools to participate with one another.
“Our next step will be to show the pathways; pathways not just through the educational process but, to the job at the end of it,” said King. “I think the best way to solve some of these problems is to get students into manufacturing plants and educators into manufacturing plants and where possible, the other way around too, to get manufacturers into the classrooms to help them.”
This was one of a handful of such hearings held around the state.
