CLAAS is a global manufacturer of light, medium, and heavy machinery.
Like many successful manufacturers, CLAAS has a steady demand for skilled workers. But while there is a pool of unskilled labor, highly-skilled craftsmen and machinists are difficult to find. So CLAAS decided to train its own rather than search for them.
“CLAAS Omaha Inc. joined another German company with operations in Omaha to become the first companies in the state to participate in the German Dual Study Apprenticeship Program.” In this, Nebraska is joining other states which are adopting German job-training patterns.
Economists and policymakers are following the German model in many regions within the United States.
“This program has been the backbone of the German economy,” explains Matthias Ristow, president of CLAAS Omaha Inc. “They must be doing something right. So we adapted this program to our local needs. It’s a high standard of learning.”
Many American industries cannot find enough tool and die makers. The nation needs to find a way to produce more skilled machinists. To remedy the shortage of skilled and highly-skilled labor, many regions are embracing the German training methods.
Under the name “Industrial Consortium for Advanced Technical Training” (ICATT), this way of giving skills to workers has been implemented in Texas, Michigan, Florida, Wisconsin, Nebraska, and other states.
There is a large and increasing demand for welders, electricians, and other trades. Parallel with advances in technology, precision tool and die making is necessary in many industries.
The program, called ICATT Apprenticeship, which was established by the German American Chamber of Commerce, is a dual study work-based education model that combines classwork with on-the-job practical experience.
This new wave of training is a welcome development. Previously, training was in decline. “Since 2008, the number of apprentices” had “fallen by nearly 40 percent, according to a Center for American Progress study,” states a report by the Aerospace Joint Apprenticeship Committee in early 2014.
That decline had continued for approximately six years, from 2008 to 2014. Now there is a revitalization in job training. A steady demand for workers is the result of, and at the same time necessary to sustain, a recovery of the nation’s manufacturing base.
