In many European countries, high school students are given two career choices when they graduate: go to college or become an apprentice in a particular trade. In the United States, this concept remains, well, foreign. New Port Richey-based AmSkills wants to change that.
AmSkills is a European-style training and apprenticeship organization that aims to help manufacturers address workforce shortages by preparing jobseekers for careers in the manufacturing industry. Through apprenticeship and pre-apprenticeship programs, teenage and adult AmSkills participants learn the basics of manufacturing, while identifying potential career paths within the industry.
“Our primary roles are to be an industry liaison, fully understanding the needs of manufacturers and what training they need to help secure skilled labor,” AmSkills CEO Tom Mudano said.
AmSkills was founded in 2014 as an inter-county agency representing Pasco, Pinellas and Hernando. Supported by a $1.2 million grant from the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity, the group sought to fill the workforce needs of the manufacturing industry in the United States. Since then, AmSkills has primarily been funded by the counties’ economic development departments but began converting to a 5013c nonprofit in 2017.
As liaison, AmSkills works with national and international manufacturers to predict and fill gaps in their workforce. Part of the issue, said Mudano, is that few American workers consider manufacturing jobs as a viable career path. To that end, the group focuses much of its efforts on recruitment.
“Most people have no clue what manufacturing involves, so recruitment is one of the most difficult things for the manufacturing industry,” Mudano said. “We have to be creative to get people interested in the manufacturing industry.”
In that vein AmSkills developed a “Mobile Innovation Station,” which the group takes to recreation centers, schools and events around the counties. The station sports a small robotics and welding workshop designed to dazzle. The group also hosts a metal working arts program to demonstrate some of the creative applications of manufacturing skills.
AmSkills’ ultimate goal is to create apprenticeship programs, Mudano said. Since most manufacturers in the U.S. don’t offer apprenticeship programs, the group works with them to establish these programs. In that way, employees can further develop their skills at AmSkills, as they’re employed at a manufacturer, which covers the cost of their training.
AmSkills offers pre-apprenticeship programs for teenagers and adults with no prior experience in manufacturing. Adults go through a 12-week pre-apprenticeship program that introduces them to manufacturing roles, teaches them skills such as the use of hand tools, and gives them the opportunity to experiment with roles.
“We run it as if they’re coming to work,” Mudano said. “They clock in and clock out. The program is like a job interview, helping them figure out what path they want to go.” At the end of the program, AmSkills creates a candidate profile, which it shares with manufacturers.
The pre-apprenticeship program is free for teens. For adults, the program costs $2,092. Mudano said scholarships are available. “If someone is trying to launch a career, we can’t let money stop them from getting the training they need. We work very hard to make sure we can get them into the program.”
AmSkills has lately focused on recruiting more women and low-income individuals into the manufacturing industry. The group recently received a $250,000 grant from the Advanced Robotics Institute to help launch its first low-income neighborhood training center in Pinellas County.
Manufacturing tasks are ripe for automation, so manufacturing can be a hard sell. According to a recent report from PwC, 10% to 15% of jobs in the manufacturing, transportation and wholesale/retail industries are at risk of being automated by 2025. By 2035 that number jumps to almost 35%. The industry’s workforce is vulnerable to replacement by mechanical machine.
Despite this, Mudano thinks manufacturing can offer people a promising career.
“Everybody knows somebody who our program can help,” he said. “It might be a son or a daughter, it might be a friend, it might be a parent."
