One of the most successful ways that metalcasters have found to tell students about the industry is through hands-on demonstrations in which youth are given the opportunity to create their own casting.
According to the 2015 Skills Gap Report published by the Manufacturing Institute in partnership with Deloitte, 3.5 million manufacturing jobs likely will need to be filled between 2015 and 2025, yet 2 million were expected to go unfilled because the skills gap. The activities and programs of metalcasting businesses, AFS chapters and groups are striving to narrow the shortage.
“As metalcasters, we have to have a strategy to account for the lack of qualified staff, and right now the main strategy is automation,” said Megan Kirsh, sales and marketing manager for AFS Corporate Member Kirsh Foundry (Beaver Dam, Wisconsin). “It is one leg of a stool, but it can’t be the only fall back. We have to have a strategy to bring people into the industry.”
