Industry & Inclusion 1.0–3.0

Background

For years, the American manufacturing industry has been grappling with a paradox. It has long been a pillar of the economy, blending research & development with technological innovation, and supporting the country’s GDP. Manufacturing careers are better paying than those in other major industries like retail and hospitality, and its firms have recently even reported an increase in wages.

So, why are manufacturing jobs—hundreds of thousands of them—going unfilled? That’s the paradox: Manufacturing careers have all the on-paper characteristics of a good job in an exciting field, yet barriers between the sector and the working-age population are keeping potential candidates on the outside.

In 2021, there were 9.8 million job openings, but only 5.3 million workers were hired into the sector, and factories have been struggling to fill jobs in recent years even before the unique pressures since 2020. This inability to hire enough workers is a reversal from earlier periods, when manufacturers had more demand for jobs than they had positions to fill.

In this environment, old recruitment methods won’t suffice. On their own, individual companies are unlikely to expand the pool of talent, and instead rely mostly on poaching skilled workers from other companies. In large part, manufacturing is a specialized sector, with clusters of similar manufacturing subsectors operating in different geographies—such as automobiles in Detroit, aerospace manufacturing in Washington State, rubber in Akronand heavy equipment in Peoria. Thus, the best strategy is for companies to come together and identify and tackle common workforce pipeline needs through sectoral employment programs.

There are tremendous opportunities to drive diverse hiring to fill the workforce needs of the manufacturing sector now and into the next decade. There are also significant challenges to attracting communities that are currently underrepresented in the sector, and to tackling significant occupational segregation that exists within manufacturing. With these opportunities and challenges in mind, the Industry & Inclusion program sought to develop cohort-model approaches to bring workforce intermediaries together to learn, design, and scale strategies for companies to attract, hire, retain, and care for workers, particularly from populations underrepresented in manufacturing.

I&I 1.0

In 2020, Mechanism and The Century Foundation began Industry & Inclusion (I&I) to take on the challenges of a racially inclusive rebirth of manufacturing in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. We brought together manufacturing experts from across the country and a cohort of eight workforce leaders to form a coalition that will strategize how to solve our national recruitment challenge, and to forge a more racially inclusive future for manufacturing. These organizations saw a major win–win proposition for communities of color, who were (and continue to be) in need of stable, good-paying careers that can be started without a college degree.

The goal of the cohort was to:

• develop deep partnerships with employers, educational institutions, and community groups

• deploy training models anchored by industry-recognized credentials that gave workers the tools they need to succeed

• engage in ongoing conversations with their industry partners about how companies can change their cultures and practices to enable new workers of color to advance and thrive

I&I 2.0

In 2022, the second I&I cohort included representatives from twelve community colleges who participated in a learning community for two years, all focused on improving outcomes for their Black, Hispanic, Asian, Indigenous, women, and other underserved students and communities. As part of the cohort, these colleges, along with workforce, industry, and community partners, collaborated to deepen the impact of their manufacturing credentialing programs and increase equity and inclusion in their local manufacturing workforce.

The objective was to create a model of “impactful credentialing” for community college programs, which would:

• provide skills and competencies needed for employment

• prepare the workforce for career mobility and positive employment outcomes.

• pursue relationship-building as a key strategy

• center approaches that foster belongingness and equity for workers and communities, such as trauma-informed care, cultural competency, and racially conscious industry partnerships

I&I 3.0

In 2023, I&I expanded the program to the ecosystem level in partnership with diverse stakeholders, including workforce development organizations, educational institutions, and industry across regional manufacturing markets in three regions due to large, place-based federal investments in the sector. The expansion of the I&I program reflected the fact that regional-level interventions are critical to advancing inclusive workforce and economic development, as key considerations, such as credentialing and financial aid, are regulated at the state level. Additionally, statewide manufacturing associations and sectoral partnerships play a vital role in developing successful approaches to recruitment, instruction, and employment.

While manufacturing stakeholders recognize the need to recruit a more diverse workforce, many do not have the understanding or knowledge to effectively update outreach or instructional approaches in ways that serve students of color. This cohort leveraged their regional networks to advance diversity and equity in workforce development. As recipients of either Build Back Better or Good Jobs Challenge grants, the members heavily focused on innovative and inclusive activities to propel local economic recovery and reshape labor dynamics to serve historically marginalized communities.

In sum, these cohorts were designed to support more impactful credentialing programs that not only provide skills and competencies needed for employment, but also prepare the workforce for career mobility and positive employment outcomes.

Each cohort included a mix of approaches to build the capacity and knowledge of participating organizations, including:

Our cohorts members created tangible, usable deliverables including:

• Partnership agreements between a community college and an Industry Council that center equity and inclusion in hiring

• Training modules for employers on how to support an immigrant workforce

• Concrete engagement strategies for faith-based organizations as partners to recruit from diverse communities

Across the cohorts, we created resources for the field, including:

I&I 1.0

Reports were authored by Andrew Dahlgren (Mechanism) and Phil Roberts.

Katy Stanton and Lee Wellington (Mechanism) and Andy Stettner and Amanda Novello (TCF) provided guidance and leadership of the program.

Dr. Ron Williams served as this project’s Academic Advisor and Elmer Moore, Jr. facilitated many virtual sessions.

I&I 2.0

Reports were authored by Michelle Burris (TCF); Johnny Magdaleno, Jeannine Cook and Tanu Kumar (Mechanism); and Laura Hatalsky.

Tanu Kumar (Mechanism) and Michelle Burris, Andy Stettner, and Emily McGrath (TCF) provided guidance and leadership of the program.

Dr. Ron Williams and Dr. Girard Melancon served as this project’s Advisors.

I&I 3.0

Tanu Kumar (Mechanism) and Michelle Burris, Andy Stettner, and Emily McGrath (TCF) provided guidance and leadership of the program.

Dr. Girard Melancon and Andrew Crowe served as this project’s Advisors.