Fabricating a new image

Saturday Academy, WSU Vancouver and local manufacturers work to draw students into manufacturing careers

BY JODIE GILMORE For the VBJ

The ranks of welders, brazers and solderers - those whose job it is to join pieces of metal - has dropped 10 percent since 2000, according to the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics.

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The American Welding Society predicts that by 2010, demand for skilled welders may outstrip supply by about 200,000. Part of the problem is retiring baby boomers - in 2006, the average age of welders was 54 and it keeps climbing.

Local nonprofit Saturday Academy has teamed up with Dave Kim, an assistant professor of mechanical engineering at Washington State University Vancouver, to do something about the dearth of skilled manufacturing laborers.

Later this month, Kim will lead a five-day metal fabrication camp at the WSUV campus. The camp was made possible by a $5,000 grant from Nuts, Bolts and Thingamajigs, the Foundation of the Fabricators and Manufacturers Association Intl.

The camp, held July 27-31, will allow 18 local eighth- through 12th-grade students to explore the world of manufacturing and mechanical engineering through a hands-on, project-based curriculum. Working with Kim and several graduate students, camp participants will build their own Stirling engine, while learning a variety of metal fabrication techniques and becoming familiar with several materials, such as copper, plastics, aluminum and stainless steel.  Nuts, Bolts and Thingamajigs funded 16 camps this year, with only two on the West Coast (the other is in Sacramento).

Gini Fox, director of education at Saturday Academy, said access to WSU resources, such as the CAD/CAM lab, was a big factor in winning the grant.

Students at the camp will spend six hours both Monday and Tuesday, splitting their time between CAD/CAM and hands-on activities in the machine shop. Wednesday through Friday, mornings will be spent on campus with field trips to local manufacturing plants in the afternoon.

Although for safety reasons, students will only watch demonstrations of tools, such as the computer numerical control machine, they will get plenty of time with hand tools such as sandpaper, reamers, metal benders, cutters and the coordinate measuring machine, as well as test equipment, such as the universal tensile tester and hardness tester.

They'll also get experience reading and interpreting blueprints.

The camp also meets one of Saturday Academy's and NBT's goals - to expand interest in manufacturing to a diverse population, such as minorities and women. Seven of the 18 attendees are sponsored by the Southwest Washington Math Engineering Science Achievement organization.

Industry shift

The camp is part of a broader, industry-wide effort to interest more people in manufacturing, said Rick Goode president and CEO of one of Clark County's largest manufacturers, Columbia Machine.

"Manufacturers need to be more proactive about promoting themselves as good places to work," he said.

In addition to participating in job fairs at local high schools and colleges, once a year Columbia Machine sponsors a "bring your kid to work" day. In 2008, 70 8- to 18-year-olds accompanied their parent to Columbia Machine. Instead of just showing the kids "this is how you weld," Goode said the company tried to instill the kids with the excitement and breadth of the big picture.

"We ship to 100 countries, utilize state-of-the-art robotics and offer a world-wide complete solution," Goode said.

Excitement, Kim said, is what he hopes to generate during the metal fab camp.

It's not enough for next-generation students to merely understand the design and manufacture of mechanical components, he said, they also need to be excited about the possibilities in the field of manufacturing.

Interest in the camp is high - Fox said it filled up quickly and several students are on the waiting list. Kim said mechanical engineering enrollment at WSUV has tripled since 2002, and fall
2009 enrollment of 45 students was a record.

"People are beginning to take a second look at manufacturing," Goode said.

Perhaps students have been perusing the Bureau of Labor Statistics's report that shows median weekly earnings for welders, solderers and brazers rose more than 17 percent from 2000 to 2004.

Columbia Machine offers scholarships for students entering technical fields, such as welding and machining, and is working with Clark College to define a new field technician program, which would combine welding and machining skills with electronics and mechanics.

Goode said it is becoming more and more important to have field technicians - especially those working in countries such as India and China - that have a broad range of skills.

"Twenty-First Century manufacturing isn't labor-intensive, it is technology intensive," Kim said.

Manufacturing by the numbers

• Manufacturing is the third largest major industry sector in the U.S. (behind retail trade and health care), and contributes 14.1 million jobs to the economy.
• Nationwide, 4.3 percent of firms fall into the manufacturing sector, but account for
  12.5 percent of employment and
  15.2 percent of wages.
• Within the 86 major subcategories of the manufacturing sector, motor vehicle parts manufacturing accounts for the largest share of employment
  (4.6 percent), followed by plastics product manufacturing
  (4.5 percent), printing (4.5 percent), animal processing (3.6 percent), aerospace manufacturing (3.3 percent), and semiconductor manufacturing
  (3.2 percent).

Source: Center for Workforce Development

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