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STEM-trained workforce seen as way to attract employers

Staff photo by Clay Schuldt Representatives from 3M, SpecSys, Kraft, Project Lead the Way and AMPI participated in a panel discussion Wednesday on worker recruitment issues attended by area educators. From left are: Mike Plocher, Darrin Buegler, Tallen Wald, Ian Nicacio and Glade Montgomery.

NEW ULM — Leaders from several local industries attended day-long conferences at Martin Luther College related to the need for STEM-educated employees in the region.

The conference was facilitated by New Ulm Business Resource and Innovation Centerand Project Lead the Way.

PLTW is a STEM curriculum program for preschool-12th grade offering pathways in engineering, computer science and biomedical science.

NUBRIC Director Paul Wessel hopes to make New Ulm into a PLTW community as a method for assisting with worker shortages in local industries. By bringing in STEM programs into the schools, it could single out industries New Ulm as a community worth investing in for the future.

Representatives from 3M, SpecSys, Kraft and AMPI were asked to speak on a panel on worker recruitment issues.

Wessel said one of the reasons representatives from these companies were attending the conference was because employee recruitment was a serious issue. Each company is looking to hire additional employees. Within the next year, companies were seeking more than 250 employees.

The jobs include everything from entry-level to highly skilled engineering positions.

The panel believed there was a misunderstanding about the type of work done in the factories and the need for skilled labor.

New Ulm 3M site manager Ian Nicacio said there was a need to break the mentality that individuals needed to travel to Silicon Valley to work on the next generation of sophisticated technology when many of that was available in local industries.

SpecSys, Inc. president Tallen Wald said there is a lot of energy spent to get people to look at automation as a career path. He said a few decades ago, people were afraid of automation because adapting to robots meant people would lose their jobs, but that’s not true. People with specialized STEM knowledge are needed to run the automation.

Bill Swan of AMPI said the company is heavily automated, but this did not eliminate the human element. He said machines do not handle variables well, so people are needed to help with daily variables.

Darrin Buegler of Kraft said there is a need for automation at the plant but people are needed to operate the lines.

Wessel acknowledged that PLTW was not the silver bullet for solving all of New Ulm’s economic needs. He said the community still struggles with housing and daycare shortages.

“But if we do nothing, that’s all we will get,” he said.

Nicacio said if the community did not get behind programs like PLTW, it could mean losing out on new business as well as losing current businesses.

He believed it was important to be more open with the community about what happens in industries.

“Let’s open the plants and show kids what they can do,” Nicacio said. He wanted to market industrial and engineering careers as something “cool” to interest the next generation.

Mike Plocher, a PLTW teacher at St. Paul’s Lutheran School, said opening industry to the school would allow students to see firsthand what is possible. Even students with parents already in the industry might not know the extent of what their parents do.

PLTW Senior Vice President Glade Montgomery said the STEM program was a starting point for a community and could lead to economic expansion.

“Businesses looking to come into town ask about the schools,” he said. “Telling them PLTW was already could have a big impact on their decision to move into town.”

In New Ulm, St. Paul’s Lutheran School teaches PLTW and MLC will offer STEM training starting next semester. MLC is a teaching college. There has been a demand for teachers with a background in STEM. MLC students going into elementary education will be trained in the PLTW model.

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