MT Magazine March/April 2025

THE WORKFORCE ISSUE

28

FEATURE STORY

The Music of Manufacturing To highlight the role of partnerships and collaborations within the workforce development community, AMT – The Association For Manufacturing Technology organized “The Music of Manufacturing” panel discussion at IMTS 2024 on the IMTS+ Main Stage. Joining Richardson were: • Jennifer Worth, senior vice president, academic and workforce development for the American Association of Community Colleges. • Metallica Scholars scholarship recipient Andrew Carrasco, a recent graduate of the College of Lake County and its Advanced Technology Center. • Craig McAtee, executive director and CEO of the National Coalition of Advanced Technology Centers. Just like a band requires members with different skills to make music, the music of manufacturing requires a combination of organizations working in harmony. AMT caught up with Richardson, Carrasco, McAtee, and Dr. Lori Suddick, Ed.D., president of the College of Lake County, to learn more about the interconnections within the workforce development ecosystem.

Metallica’s Motivation Vocalist and guitarist James Hetfield of Metallica believes in the organization’s work. “When we launched the Metallica Scholars Initiative, it really spoke to me,” says Hetfield. “Trade skills are vital to society, and what’s even more important is to support the many folks who are trying to create a career by learning and using these skills.” When Metallica goes on tour, the band depends on the skilled trades for sound, video, lighting, rigging, set design and construction, catering, electrical, commercial truck driving, and much more. “There are companies that provide these trained, skilled professionals, and the band wanted to do something for education,” says Richardson. “James stood up and said, ‘Let’s make it about trade education.’ It was a time in his life where his kids were going through school, and he noticed students weren’t being told they can go to a trade school and have a wonderful career. With the Metallica scholarships, the band helps those students get their careers underway. Ironically, that conversation was in 2019, and we as a nation hadn’t been talking about the worker shortage at that point. Metallica was very much ahead of the curve with the idea of supporting trades people.” Student Impact One of those tradespeople is Andrew Carrasco. Carrasco began his hands-on learning path as an auto mechanic in high school. While he continued after graduation, he “still felt a little lost. Something was missing.” Eventually, Carrasco became the general manager of a retail store before landing a job as a production operator for Abbott Laboratories, one of the largest employers in Lake County (which runs from the northern Chicago suburbs to the Wisconsin border). This changed everything. “Working in production started me on an engineering and automation journey,” he says. “I saw the online reviews where employers recognized the College of Lake County’s automation program, so I decided to give it a shot. It’s not your typical learning. The program is hands-on. We trained on the actual equipment that we’d see in industry, so it was really cool. Instead of coming out of school scared and confused, I knew how to use equipment from Siemens, Allen-Bradley, FANUC, Festo, and Amatrol.”

Scan to watch “The Music of Manufacturing” panel discussion from IMTS 2024.