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The Challenge
Business in America is fighting against multiple constraints to survive, including foreign
competition, governmental regulation, capital formation, and worker shortage. Fortunately, industry has champions with the courage and
leadership to fight back. The mission is to rebuild an American production system premised on entrepreneurship, applied technologies,
and environmental stewardship. Rebuilding the new production system requires coordination, cooperation, perseverance, and old-fashioned
hard work. Joined by champions from education, government, the media, and service industries, victory is achievable. We are Americans,
and we can do it.
Manufacturing Day is an industry effort, involving manufacturers, educational institutions and community/regional economic development
groups that coordinate education, shop tours, and information to instruct the public about the importance of production to America.
Participating companies provide tours and work closely with education and industry. All make the case for acquiring the technical skills
to take advantage of the current job openings for advanced jobs, and prepare students for the rapidly expanding technical workplace.
Please visit http://www.mfgday.com and view the sponsors and endorsers. Visit their great websites,
and understand their mission, tactics, and method. This is an unprecedented exchange of information, shared to reach common goals.
The primary focus of these groups is manufacturing, but technology is pervasive. The need for qualified people extends to the environment,
resource management, construction, health care, agriculture, utilities - everywhere that humans and machines interact.
Technology Job Training
Students entering college today will graduate in 2018-19. Degrees may be mismatched to
opportunities before they graduate, if not already. The next six years will end with major job destruction in all fields where automation
can replace human effort.
Nearly all new jobs, estimated at between 12 and 14 million openings, will occur in small, highly automated businesses or startups, and most
will require STEM training.
Regional Development
Regional development is a key tool for building a resurgent economy. Sections of the country
that underutilize or underestimate the importance of this approach will find it difficult to compete in the future. Regional development
groups re-engineer the infrastructure of government, industry, and education, building on strengths and shoring up weaknesses. Affinity
Systems has been a member of the New North, where eighteen counties in northeast Wisconsin combined to build a dynamic and energetic
consortium able to compete and succeed in the global economy.
The journey involves new energy paradigms, enlightened education, and a focus on entrepreneurship and innovation. Below are two
presentations that, while dated, provide a comprehensive perspective of the regional concept.
Pick Up The Gauntlet
North America's better days are in the future, not the past, but we all need to believe and
participate in this noble project. Building an opportunity driven North America, and ensuring economic success, are legacies to current
and future generations.
