Too dumb for an auto plant?
Canadian broadcasting reports that Toyota decided to locate a new automobile manufacturing plant in Ontario -- turning down millions of dollars in subsidies offered by southeastern U.S. states -- because the Americans were poorly educated and trained:
Industry experts say Ontarians are easier and cheaper to train - helping make it more cost-efficient to train workers when the new Woodstock plant opens in 2008, 40 kilometres away from its skilled workforce in Cambridge.Even worse:
"The level of the workforce in general is so high that the training program you need for people, even for people who have not worked in a Toyota plant before, is minimal compared to what you have to go through in the southeastern United States," said Gerry Fedchun, president of the Automotive Parts Manufacturers' Association, whose members will see increased business with the new plant.
He said Nissan and Honda have encountered difficulties getting new plants up to full production in recent years in Mississippi and Alabama due to an untrained - and often illiterate - workforce. In Alabama, trainers had to use "pictorials" to teach some illiterate workers how to use high-tech plant
equipment."The educational level and the skill level of the people down there is so much lower than it is in Ontario," Fedchun said.
posted by Warwick Sabin @ 1:49 PM
3 comments
3 Comments:
This has been a big issue in Chattanooga, Tenn., where a major auto manufacturer has been exploring building a large plant. This entry in a local blog highlights a day where county commissioners declared the county superintendent "Public Enemy No. 1" on the same day that Chattanooga was revealed to be on the short list for this car plant. The interplay between economic development and education issues is hard to avoid.
what is odd about this story is that some conservative columnist in pittsburg has written a piece claiming teh GOP is Toyota and the Dems are GM.
If true, then why would Toyota shun the heart of the GOP land and all those millions in incentives to go to a cold, semi-socialist place that doesn't criminalize personal marijuana use or support the war in Iraq?
http://tinyurl.com/ae7fu
I spent three years working for a headhunter, finding middle management for manufacturers, mostly automotive suppliers, in the South.
I learned a dirty truth - our workforce is not adequate for these types of jobs. Buying them off with costly tax breaks, which shift tax burdens upon those people and businesses already here, can only go so far.
In the automotive industry, especially with Japanese, the belief that quality is cheaper than cheap products. After a certain point, we can't buy them off with low wages and tax breaks.
Our workforce isn't good enough for manufacturers who put quality over costs, and those manufacturers who are concerned about cost over quality can save more money offshore.
In the long run, where does that put us?
We've got a good technical education system, but our K-12 is deficient, and the lottery is helping price adult students out of seeking a four year degree to pair with their work experience (most adult students, regardless of grades or courseload, DO NOT qualify for lottery money in 4 year colleges).
We've got a long way to go if we want to address these problems, but we'd better do something, and soon.
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