The Hidden Opportunities in Manufacturing | Blue Collar StartUp #138

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Unknown
Oh, hey. Oh!

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Unknown
Oh!

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Speaker 2
Welcome, everyone to the blue Collar start up the podcast for hard work meets big ideas. This is your home for real talk, real stories and real strategies from the front lines of life in the business of the trades. I’m one of your hosts, Mike Nelson from Five Towers Media.

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Speaker 1
And I’m your co-host, Step Foster from Dago Cleaning Systems. Let’s get to work.

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Speaker 2
Let’s get to work. D what’s shakin out there? And, Diego, cleaning systems land a lot.

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Speaker 1
It’s been a lot. Been a crazy summer. We talked, you know, offline about some of the stuff we have going on, but, all good things. Just very, very busy. A lot of moving pieces. But, with the nice.

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Speaker 3
Weather here and then some rain days in between trying to get.

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Speaker 1
Projects wrapped up and, while the weather’s good, it’s been been a little bit.

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Speaker 3
Of a challenge, but we’re working.

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Speaker 1
Through it. So. Yeah. What’s what’s new in the Five Towers media? Well, get it.

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Speaker 2
You know, just the the I revolution here as far as marketing goes, man. It’s, you know, just trying to help educate our clients and everybody about what’s happening and why we want to make the changes. And, you know, it’s it’s a wild time to be alive day.

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Speaker 1
It is. And, you know, it’s funny, I think, you know, with, some.

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Speaker 3
Of the conversations.

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Speaker 1
That that we’ve had and the percentage of the internet that, you know, as bots or could be, you know, a lot of people I think are really liking the,

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Speaker 3
Person to person interactions and contacts and, and, you know, old school networking as well. So I think it’s making a little bit of a comeback here. So.

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Speaker 1
Which is kind of a.

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Speaker 3
Parallel to our guests today, I guess.

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Speaker 1
That works out really well. You know, we’re.

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Speaker 3
Members here, the Capital Region chamber, and.

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Speaker 1
Just joined, actually. So, excited to have Matt and and Don from CG here, with us today. So.

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Speaker 2
Yeah. Guys, you want to go ahead and, introduce yourselves and, tell us a little about who you are and what you do at CG.

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Speaker 1
Sure is before beauty down here. Before beauty.

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Speaker 1
All right, I’ll go. So thanks for having us. My name is Don wise and forth. I’m the senior vice president of the Manufacturing Solutions Group here at CG, and the director of the Manufacturing Extension Partnership. So in a nutshell, and by the way, I’m not an I bod. I’m real. I’m real flesh and blood. I can show you some.

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Speaker 2
So in a nutshell.

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Speaker 1
Part of the national network.

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Speaker 2
The MEP.

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Speaker 1
Systems nationwide, we have 11, and the arc, sole function is to help small midsize manufacturing companies grow. So that’s what we do day in and day out. And that can be anything from lean to ISO quality to marketing to AI automation, whatever a company needs to grow, we bring those services to help them out. So, people don’t know we have 900 manufacturers in the Capital Region.

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Speaker 1
So it’s, it’s, it’s a powerhouse. And, we’re excited to play a small role in helping these companies grow from the start up to the global foundries. Regeneron is in the like.

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Speaker 1
And my colleagues, Matt Gratton.

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Speaker 1
Thanks, Don. Thanks very much, guys, for having us. This is, awesome. My name is Mark Ryden. I’m the director of workforce innovation, which is a kind of a new popular term. It’s being, you know, job title. It’s being used a lot in, in the workforce development, space. And certainly there is a need to innovate, you know, some of what we’re doing in workforce development.

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Speaker 1
But, my role at CG is to kind of help, working with our team, to, to help, identify pre apprenticeship programs in the manufacturing area. We also are a New York State Department of Labor, registered group sponsor for registered apprenticeship programs. So what that means is we liaison on behalf, for about right now, nine manufacturing companies in the region, to run their registered apprenticeship programs for them.

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Speaker 1
On behalf of of the Department of Labor. And as part of that, we also, connect them to a whole wide network of various tax credit and incentive programs that really help not only drive the cost down, but actually, in some instances, bring in money and become a very small gravity center in your talent development or HR team.

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Speaker 1
I’ve been doing on workforce development for the better part of of three decades. Yeah. Across, state agency. I had a career with the New York State Department of Labor. I worked in the Suny system for two of our, local Suny colleges, one community college, and and at the University at Albany. And then I actually spent some time at plug power, hydrogen fuel cell being factor, as the director of community and, and workforce development there as well.

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Speaker 1
So, just trying to keep tabs on, you know, everything that’s evolving and changing in the, in the world of workforce development. And make sure that we’re, you know, providing programs that get people connected with the skills so that they can move into, whether it’s manufacturing, the traditional trades, areas of supply chain, they’re all desperate for, for, for blue collar talent.

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Speaker 1
And, you know, we’re trying to make sure we have programs in place and, let individuals know that these programs are available for that. We get trained and have the skills.

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Speaker 2
Yeah, it’s it’s interesting with, you know, blue and gray collar distinction that we make sometimes. But, you know, every time I’m in the manufacturer, I’m, I’m walking through and it’s, you know, a lot of blue collar talent all over the place, right? Like, I, for whatever reason, we’ve segmented them away from each other. But, you know, my understanding is always is that, you know, gray collar and blue collar.

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Speaker 2
It’s it’s it’s really the same kind of bucket, right? Like, you go to a manufacturer, they’ve got welders, they’ve got fabricators, they’ve got, you know, all the, all the things that you would normally associate with blue collar. Is that fair?

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Speaker 1
As well another thing. Absolutely. You know that that is the case. And then, you know, seeing how some of those blend into, some of the jobs and, and how the individuals out on the floor work with, you know, I mentioned supply chain. Supply chain to me is or is a, you know, great gray collar type opportunity that mixes, you know, the work in terms of, you know, moving product out on the floor, bringing in raw material, moving out finished goods, orchestrating all of your logistics, shipping, receiving operations.

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Speaker 1
You know, driving down costs. It’s it’s a mini engineering discipline. And, and it’s one that, frankly, you know, is under I, there’s not a lot of training programs in those particular areas. So that’s just one particular example. But, you know, Don, I don’t know if there’s anything else that you want to add to that. Now while I just say and not only that, it but it’s a very diverse when you walk, a manufacturing floor, you’re seeing women, you know, you’re seeing, you know, every different race and color and type of person, people with disabilities.

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Speaker 1
I mean, the manufacturing floor is a smorgasbord of, people from all walks of life, all, adding value to our economy. And, it’s pretty it’s pretty awesome to see. And, yeah. You know, there’s, there’s we do have programs at CTG to help, you know, the supervisors, evolve, you know, certain skills that they need, how to train somebody, how to deal with people and people problems, how to improve methods.

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Speaker 1
All that stuff is things we bring to the table to help manufacturers, grow those folks once they join a company. So.

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Speaker 2
You mentioned it’s 900 manufacturing organizations just in our area alone. And and it’s when I think about this, I, I always think, I don’t know why I think this, but I always just feel like our part of the country is like every part of the country, right? Everywhere you go, there’s manufacturers. It is is it an anomaly that we have that saturated or that number of people of manufacturers in our community, or is that all over the country?

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Speaker 2
Same thing. I’m.

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Speaker 1
Pretty sure it’s all over the country, certainly within the New York MVP. Again, there’s 11 of us. So Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse, North Country, North country might be a little little less. But Long Island, New York City I mean, we’re we’re everywhere. And and the thing is, people drive by, drive down, you know, whatever, Main Street or, you know, Broadway and you drive past these buildings.

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Speaker 1
Little do you know, they’re doing some pretty cool stuff inside that building that you drive by and you just see a little sign. And so I think that’s the that’s the interesting part. And then you got the entrepreneurs who start a company in their garage, and then they add on, and next thing you know, and, you know, brought up and you have, you know, quite a big manufacturing company.

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Speaker 1
So people are always shocked, at that number and, and what they do and where they are and how many people we I think it’s in the capital Region, we have 35,000 manufacturing jobs.

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Speaker 2
Wow. You know it. So that being, you know, our area but also across the country, how do how does CGS specifically support blue and gray collar organizations like I know you kind of give the overview, but like I know you’ve got some some specific programs and things that you do and objectives that you’re trying to hit. Can you kind of tell us a little bit about that?

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Speaker 1
Go kick that to Matt and to answer that question, you know, I, I think between Don and myself and unfortunately, our two offices are right next to each other, although, I’m working from home today. We,

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Speaker 1
We, we dovetail in terms of the programs and services that we offer. Mine obviously are a bit more contextualized and focused on workforce development and providing, you know, the the skills development, programs and tools, a lot of collaboration, interaction with our regional Boces, our community colleges, and some other, you know, niche training providers, organizations like the Seed Center.

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Speaker 1
I think you guys have had Jennifer, on before does amazing work. You know, so it’s a lot of collaboration. Workforce development is a team sport. So, but, you know, some of those programs, again, our, our pre apprenticeship programs, we have two pre apprenticeship programs right now that we’re running, they basically run the same curriculum but they target different demographics.

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Speaker 1
We have our real life Rosie’s program which is modeled after Rosie the Riveter. It’s got this really cool logo and Rosie with guns out and you know, strong women and and just builds off of, you know, the, the original woman in manufacturing and what we dealt with during, during World War two in terms of how we had to keep our factories, moving.

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Speaker 1
And it’s about getting more women into manufacturing. And as Don mentioned, we are seeing a sea change in that and seeing more women explore careers, in manufacturing. And and they can certainly do them. It’s there’s nothing there’s nothing around the stereotype of, you know, a lot of these jobs or all this repetitive lifting, and women aren’t strong enough.

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Speaker 1
That’s foolish. And there’s there’s ample opportunity, for women. And I think in many instances we are leaving half the population on the sidelines. So, so that program specifically targets getting women into into manufacturing. And then we have our advanced to apprenticeship program, which is basically a catch all that targets, any and all other, populations that, in many instances just are not exposed, including individuals with disabilities or high level developmental disabilities.

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Speaker 1
And these programs are kind of a an eight week high boot camp to provide a broad base of the core foundational skills in manufacturing. And they are called direct entry, pre apprenticeship programs with them. What that means is that upon completion, the individuals should be well positioned to move directly in to a registered apprenticeship program with one of our manufacturing businesses.

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Speaker 1
So, and then, you know, that progression, works very nicely because now that individuals and earn while you learn model and they’re getting formalized education, you know, at one of our community colleges usually. So those are the kind of the core two programs. But then we also have this other large initiative at CGM, a workforce development side, which is the launch of our regional OnRamp center, which is the one network for regional advanced manufacturing partnerships, which was an initiative of in Hochul.

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Speaker 1
There are four of these onramp centers, sprinkled across the I-90 corridor, with the model center being the one in Buffalo that’s been a stand up for for about nine years now, which is the new ones training workforce training center. But there is a flagship center that is now operational in Syracuse. Really building the workforce for micron in the construction trades to build the micron facility.

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Speaker 1
There are they’ll be facility stood up in Utica, Rochester, and here in Albany and in Albany. CTG is leading that. So we’re we’re knee deep in the process of working with Empire State Development, identifying, temporary location, which we pretty much have identified. We’re just about finalizing lease details. We’ll probably be operational, providing many of these programs that I’ve mentioned, for probably two years in this temporary center and then looking to move into a more permanent, larger facility in downtown Albany, in, in about 2 to 3 years time.

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Speaker 1
So that’s it. On the workforce side, I mean, Don has a whole suite. The kind of the manufacturing technical assistance side that that if you don’t know, if you want to touch on some of those. Yeah. I mean, you know, once, once the, there’s, you know, a company, has somebody on board, you know, how do they progress, what’s the career pathway?

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Speaker 1
And we help with those and again, skills a lot often times the people to become supervisors sometimes that happens by accident. Right. And and all of a sudden you’re promoted and you’re in charge of a department of ten people. And what skills do you have to do that? And so we provide those skills, you know, there’s like 40 leadership type classes, how to have difficult conversations, how to, communicate, how to build teams, how to understand, and have empathy.

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Speaker 1
And then, you know, the other skills, like I said, how to train somebody, how to improve methods, how to deal with, you know, people issues. So there’s a sweet depending on what the, the needs are of the clients that we can, that we can leverage. So.

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Speaker 2
To jump back over to workforce and then we’ll, we’ll come back, over to the other stuff that you’re working on. Donna, as far as the work, the pre apprenticeship programs,

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Speaker 2
what kind of apprenticeships are people typically going into specifically like are they going in, you know, like what are the actual jobs.

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Speaker 1
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Speaker 2
what kind of apprenticeships are people typically going into specifically like are they going in, you know, like what are the actual jobs.

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Speaker 1
Yeah. In in the manufacturing side, Michael, it’s a good question. The we have presently right now we’re running three different trades, approved trades in the New York State Department of Labor apprenticeship trade portfolio, which is hundreds of different trade titles across numerous industry sectors. But the ones that we, we are running our industrial manufacturing technician, which is kind of a very much core foundational, shorter length, program, which is about 18 months.

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Speaker 1
That teaches pretty much, again, core foundations of manufacturing get a little bit diversified in its perspective. But what that offers then is an opportunity for we use the term a lot in the workforce world stacking, that offers if an individual completes that apprenticeship, they would get their journey worker card, as an industrial manufacturing technician. But if they wanted to continue on, with using the engineering path, or excuse me, using the apprenticeship pathway, they could explore a whole number of other approved manufacturing trades like manufacturing engineering technician we’ve run in the past.

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Speaker 1
We run CNC machining. We run we’ve run electromechanical technicians. We have a new trade that we actually started and built with Global Foundry. It’s called the Nanotechnology Engineering Technician. So there’s a whole there’s there’s probably about, I’d say 10 to 15 additional trades that, that IMT that short 18 month industrial manufacturing technician trade could stack into.

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Speaker 1
And the nice part is, is while the apprentice is taking their coursework at the community college, they’re building a, a, a, registrar’s account. Basically, they’re building a transcript, towards an associate’s degree. And the fun being that the state is making available to cover the tuition costs, this is the beauty of these programs right now. The tuition is not covered, paid for by the apprentice, and it’s not paid for by the business, for the nontraditional trades.

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Speaker 1
Now I’m talking just manufacturing and the nontraditional, you know, construction trades for those programs. Suny has a, a tuition assistance program that covers that tuition. And if you use that stacking methodology, you can get upwards of $14,000 of your related instruction and community college covered. That’s about 90% of an associate’s degree. So here’s a now pathway for young individuals to explore getting into the trades and pursuing getting an associate’s degree with with almost little to no, no doubt, but even no expense out of pocket expenses associated with that.

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Speaker 1
So, ample opportunities and but that’s what we just have to do is really continue to, to shine a light on what these opportunities are for young kids so that they can, you know, they can continue to explore them.

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Speaker 2
Do you think that it’s still a barrier for young kids? I, I shouldn’t say that. It obviously isn’t a barrier, that the financial burden of going to getting an associate’s degree or any college degree is a barrier for a lot of people. Even with all the programs that are out there, it’s.

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Speaker 2
Are people able to like you? So you’re saying stacking like they’re able to use this as, like the initial opportunity to get in and get most of that education done without any cost to themselves, and then they can start to add things on top of it that higher. Is that what that means?

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Speaker 1
Yeah, absolutely. And, you know, the beauty of it is obviously we I’m sure you’ve talked about apprenticeship programs in the past and other, episodes as well. But the beauty of the apprenticeship program is, is earn while you learn. You’re you’re taking what you learned in the classroom and you’re immediately applying it the next day on the job, which is a very different than the traditional education model, which is go to school first, finish that schooling, and then whatever that is later, whether that’s two years later, four years later or whatever, you know, you go and you get a job and you say, what?

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Speaker 1
What was that I was taught four years ago and you forgot by that. So the beauty of the apprenticeship programs are really earn while you learn. And that immediate applicability of what you’re learning in the classroom and how it relates and correlates, on the job. And I think we have to continue to, to focus on these alternative pathways.

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Speaker 1
I call an apprenticeship program a different way in the it’s a side door into a community college, right? It’s not the front door where you’re you’re going in, let’s say, and pursuing an associate’s degree as a matriculated student in you’re taking five courses a semester. This is a different way to approach it, and to hold a job while you’re doing it.

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Speaker 1
So you have a source of income coming in. And there’s such a heavy push right now around, apprenticeship programs, that there are numerous types of these types of grants and incentive programs, not only for the individual apprentice, but also for the businesses associated with that. There are tax credit and incentives and even cash payments for the businesses, to incentivize them to, to, to use registered apprenticeship as a, as a workforce training model.

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Speaker 1
What is your most, popular pathway? Just out of curiosity.

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Speaker 1
We we recommend all of our manufacturers that they start their programs. They don’t have to, certainly, but that they start, with that industrial manufacturing technician, trade, which again, will focus more. It focuses on the core foundation. Would you want to build a good manufacturing worker? You need to start with quality and safety. And that’s a lot of what the IMT, the industrial manufacturing technician trade will focus on is aspects of recognizing quality, raw material quality, process quality.

00;23;10;06 – 00;23;38;09
Speaker 1
Finished good, how to test for that and how to do all that work safely. Right. If we can start there now, we’ve got a bedrock of a foundation that we can build and then expose those individuals to different types of pathways. And then depending on the business that they’re in, the company that they’re working for, the providing them, that apprenticeship program that may start to dictate some of the specialized trades for, for, for a company like Global Foundries.

00;23;38;09 – 00;24;07;21
Speaker 1
Absolutely. It’s, it’s into now technology engineering, you know, technician. But for some of our, our machine shops like Reno Industries, for example, it’s, it’s the pathway into CNC machining, into that particular trade. So now that pathway can start back a little bit earlier with these pre apprenticeship programs. And the pre apprenticeship programs is where we’re really trying to do the initial exposure before the individuals in a full registered apprenticeship program.

00;24;07;21 – 00;24;32;26
Speaker 1
So these individuals are not employed yet. That’s the subtle difference between a registered apprenticeship and pre apprenticeship. So they’re not employed. Yeah. They’re not hired as a full time apprentice. But we’re exposing them through an eight week type bootcamp. It’s that pathway pre apprenticeship to registered apprenticeship. IMT you to them stack into a specialized trade like CNC machining.

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Speaker 1
It’s a really time tested and proven half way to develop somebody like a skilled so young machinist.

00;24;43;20 – 00;25;13;23
Speaker 2
Kind of putting you guys on the spot here and I didn’t I didn’t warn you ahead of time. But, do you have any kind of statistics or numbers from a standpoint of how much supply there is in the workforce versus how much demand there is in the workforce? Mainly just trying to put some context around for young people trying to if they’re considering this pathway of how much demand there is versus how much supplies, they can understand the opportunity that’s in front of them.

00;25;13;25 – 00;25;38;01
Speaker 1
Matt may have a better, answer to that. I’m going to say, if you want to go into manufacturing, there is a space for you that I want to say 3 to 500,000 open jobs in manufacturing in New York State alone. Wow. And if you add, the naval shipyards, I mean, it will. And the there’s enormous opportunities.

00;25;38;01 – 00;26;03;05
Speaker 1
And I think the thing to keep in mind is it’s not just the manufacturing, you know, shop floor. Right? It’s it’s HR, it’s sales, it’s legal, it’s finance. It’s it’s in everything and be social media. So you know, manufacturing if you’re an accounting like there’s so many pathways or the companies need all of that. Not and the people on the shop floor to run the machine.

00;26;03;05 – 00;26;13;00
Speaker 1
So but I would say there’s enormous opportunities. Matt, I don’t know if you have more specific data.

00;26;13;03 – 00;26;16;13
Speaker 2
I know I’m putting you on the spot here, Matt.

00;26;16;15 – 00;26;34;13
Speaker 1
It’s the doc, but I know right where to go. Get it from my crew. My, previous career at the state Department of Labor. I mean, the the the that’s the I don’t know the exact numbers we don kind of alluded to maybe, you know, some of what those are and then obviously get into boiling them down in terms of what geographic area do you want them in?

00;26;34;13 – 00;26;43;12
Speaker 1
I, I, I think DoD did a wonderful job of suffice it to say, when we talk to manufacturers all the time, I’ll get I’m going to get you the number, Michael, before the end of the post.

00;26;43;13 – 00;26;46;08
Speaker 2
Oh that’s okay. So I put you your the spot there.

00;26;46;11 – 00;27;29;26
Speaker 1
You know I could cheat and use AI to do it but I’ll get I’ll I just don’t see that. Yeah. I have to sign up for employment projections for the state Department of Labor and go in at a broad manufacturing level. But, I mean, God can reinforce this. Every almost every manufacturer we talk to will tell us that if I only had more skilled talent, and I had, you know, more individuals with the basic foundational skills where we could add additional product lines on or we we could, you know, put on another shift or it’s, it’s costing me, you know, x amount of additional, you know, contracts that are secured.

00;27;29;28 – 00;28;02;21
Speaker 1
So the demand is there. And I think, you know, with and not to bring politics into discussion, but I think you have to to a certain extent, a little bit here, talk about, you know, how there has been an emphasis of, of on reshoring, and on, you know, domestic supply chains and that’s creating opportunities. I feel, even more so for, career paths into, into advanced manufacturing, associated with that.

00;28;02;21 – 00;28;22;00
Speaker 1
So, you know, that’s a piece as well that CTG, you know, continues to do and it working on our partnership with the Capital Region Chamber and the Business Council of New York State and all the other organizations, is making sure that we’re doing at the advocacy to create the types of environment that manufacturers can thrive in here domestically.

00;28;22;07 – 00;28;47;29
Speaker 1
And that’s a lot of the reason why Don’s program exists. The Manufacturing Extension Partnership through the Department of Commerce is we’re really trying to make sure that, you know, we’re creating a domestic environment here where US manufacturers can, can, can thrive. So, long winded answer to say the demand is there. There. Absolutely. And we talk to employers all the time that say we need more kids to explore this career path.

00;28;48;01 – 00;29;07;05
Speaker 1
And so one of the things we’re also doing just to back it up before that is we launched a program two years ago called What’s so Cool about manufacturing. Yeah. So this is targeted towards middle school seventh and eighth graders for that whenever I talk to them or even any parents. And they say, by the way, how many manufacturers are in the capital region?

00;29;07;05 – 00;29;32;22
Speaker 1
They tell me to 2550. When I say 900, they’re like, really? And then they, you know, the parents have no idea that the pre apprenticeship is a pathway, that the kid could go to college. It’s earn and learn. Right. And it could the it’s not skills or degree. It’s both. And so so we launched this program with six middle schools two years ago 15.

00;29;32;22 – 00;29;59;06
Speaker 1
This year we’ll have 20 middle schools that compared with the manufacturer the kids for the school former team, we buy them go pro equipment. They they get a ton of skills. They got to go to the company, interview people, shoot video, create a marketing plan was posted online last year with 15 middle schools. We had 66,000 votes on middle school kids videos about what’s so cool about manufacturing.

00;29;59;08 – 00;30;26;03
Speaker 1
And the kids want to go there. They’re like, they can see themselves. I can see myself here. And now they know, there’s an opportunity. And through CG and others, there’s, you know, there’s a pathway. And, so it’s not just the kids, it’s their parents being aware of manufacturing, the opportunities, the funding. I mean, we’re doing as much as we can because it is I think the I heard there’s 10 million less people in the world for the next ten years.

00;30;26;05 – 00;30;35;21
Speaker 1
It’s only going to get harder. So it’s a combination of automation technology and workforce that we’re we’re trying to help these manufacturers with.

00;30;35;23 – 00;30;56;27
Speaker 2
Yeah. It’s interesting when you talk about that because that, you know, I can’t open up a news source without reading about tech layoffs and large tech companies and other organizations. With all these huge layoffs, I don’t ever see large manufacturers laying people off. It’s always the opposite side of that coin, right? They need to starving for people.

00;30;57;00 – 00;31;27;26
Speaker 1
They’re starving for people. It’s almost a necessity. They have to they have to do that. And, and, and those people aren’t being displaced. They’re moved maybe to other value added activities, you know. But my experience, like with I at a manufacturing, the person, the people doing the work are like, oh, I can do this for me. You know, that tedious thing that you spend four hours doing and a day a week or whatever, freeing up time so that they can do what they really want to do?

00;31;27;29 – 00;31;36;02
Speaker 1
And it sort of unlocks some creativity, although I don’t have anything to prove that. But that’s been what I’m witnessing.

00;31;36;04 – 00;32;06;16
Speaker 2
Well, you know, it’s to your point, you know, Derek has introduced into his company in the last couple of years, the I’m going to say robots, Derek. But I know that’s not the right term, but it’s, you know, automated janitorial right through these things. But and he’s done that in his business. And we talked with, Terry Hubbard at Peak Environmental last year, who did a similar thing with his landscaping company where they introduced these, what we were calling Mobius.

00;32;06;16 – 00;32;30;19
Speaker 2
Right. And to your point, though, with I like those services, didn’t mean they were firing people. It meant that they were elevating what people were doing inside their organizations. And, so it sounds like you’re saying similar thing, right? That AI is allowing people to get rid of some of that manual, boring stuff and do other high level tasks and other things that they need to do.

00;32;30;21 – 00;32;42;13
Speaker 1
Yep. And and Culbertson robots the same. And like I said, I mean, there’s just an enormous need for people. So it’s a combination that has to be a strategy for a manufacturer.

00;32;42;16 – 00;33;02;17
Speaker 2
Yeah. Don, can you, unpack the MVP stuff a little bit? And then, no. Actually, no. What, so that I’m not jumping around too much, which I have a habit of doing. Don, you mentioned with the what’s so cool about manufacturing program you guys are running that. Yeah, you’re doing it with middle school kids.

00;33;02;17 – 00;33;26;01
Speaker 2
And, you know, we also have a, relationship with the Northeast Construction Trades Workforce Coalition. Pam and Doug over there are amazing people doing amazing work. They’re also focusing on younger people for construction and trades. And I’m I’m curious about why, those younger age groups, as opposed to high schoolers that are preparing for workforce of wire.

00;33;26;01 – 00;33;29;25
Speaker 2
Why you’re going a little bit earlier.

00;33;29;27 – 00;33;58;02
Speaker 1
To. Good question. And it’s not either. And and, you know, I think the Boces and some other, programs in the Capital District at least target the high school kids already. Not to say there isn’t more of an opportunity. And as this thing grows, I could see us doing more in that space. But, you know, we we got, you know, there’s a the the awareness.

00;33;58;02 – 00;34;22;10
Speaker 1
Like I said, nobody knows these companies are there. And then there’s their perception. The dark, dirty, dangerous, which is also mostly not there. And so, you know, our, our approach was to try to build that pipeline early on. Let’s get these kids so that when they go to high school, they’re going to CTE programs are going to Boces, are seeing that as a, as a pathway.

00;34;22;10 – 00;34;49;22
Speaker 1
I think there is work to be done with the high school kids. And frankly, the college kids, you know, the most people never get in their lives the chance to walk through a manufacturing company. Right? I mean, unless your pop or mom works at one, they really have no idea what is available to them. And so any of these programs that can open that, open those doors and they can say, oh, I can do that.

00;34;49;25 – 00;35;12;17
Speaker 1
Like I said, and it’s not just the shop floor, it’s it’s everything. And so, that’s why we started there. I think there’s room in the high school level. Definitely. And, we’ll probably be doing more of that in future. So I think that going right, it, I just if you don’t mind, I just want to add on to that a specific example I could share.

00;35;12;17 – 00;35;39;25
Speaker 1
I know a lot of it has to do with really, you know, there’s been a lot of research done in the education space around, like when students are really beginning to think about, informing kind of ideas and concepts in terms of where they want, what they want to do, you know, within in a career aspect. And, a lot of the mindset is that at the high school level, it may be too late now.

00;35;39;25 – 00;36;03;14
Speaker 1
I, I think that’s more in theory. All right. Because I think we’re also finding that born. I mean, sometimes a lot of us adults still really know what we, we want to do. But, a good example, when I was working for the state Department of Labor and we were working with the state’s economic development team to bring the Global Foundries project here into, Saratoga County.

00;36;03;16 – 00;36;28;02
Speaker 1
At the time that project was the company was AMD, the semiconductor chip manufacturer. And then they outsourced their manufacturing, GlobalFoundries. They were analyzing when they were looking at all the various sites. They were looking at the science and math scores of fourth graders, in the regions of of where they were are looking. I always found that to be kind of interesting, and fascinating.

00;36;28;04 – 00;36;58;12
Speaker 1
And I think, you know, the what’s so cool about I think the organizers, to Dan’s point, you know, decided on middle school, there’s a very popular event that I know, Doug and, team, from the northeast career trade. Still, Doug is wonderful. Can’t say enough great things about the work he’s doing. The there’s an event called Career Jam, here locally where we bring about 50 or so organizations in and they create interactive displays and it is targeted at middle schools.

00;36;58;12 – 00;37;17;05
Speaker 1
But but the organizers kept getting input from the high school, from the school counselor saying, you know, the middle schoolers are benefiting from this, but the high schoolers need it as well. So a lot of that, I think, is driven driven by educational theory and research. But I think more and more that’s evolving and that we’re seeing even kids going in.

00;37;17;05 – 00;37;24;01
Speaker 1
A lot of it has to do with the way careers are changing so quickly now as well. So.

00;37;24;03 – 00;37;49;17
Speaker 2
Career jam, great organization. Shout out, Erica and her late husband Ryan, who started it. He was a friend of mine and, very much missed, but great organization. Yeah. So, Don, let’s let’s talk about the map a little bit because that that’s a interesting, way to organize that network if you I’m going to butcher it down.

00;37;49;17 – 00;37;53;13
Speaker 2
So if you could, you could give us the rundown on that.

00;37;53;15 – 00;38;15;01
Speaker 1
So under we’ve been the map has been around for over 30 years and CTG was one of the original organizations. So under the U.S. Department of Commerce, funds Nest National Institute of Standards and Technology, and the MSP program sits within Nest. And it was founded again to help small and mid-sized manufacturing companies across the United States grow.

00;38;15;03 – 00;38;45;15
Speaker 1
So there’s 350 locations. There’s 1500 people all across the country were two hours from any manufacturer funded in the New York state. We’re supported by ESD, Empire State Development to help those companies grow. And, you know, it’s really like I said, what is it you need, to grow? I can’t help you if I don’t know.

00;38;45;15 – 00;39;10;07
Speaker 1
So we go in and we have a conversation and really, through that network and our partners and our third parties, there’s nothing I can help a manufacturer do. And 90% of our projects are, we have cost recovery dollars up to, 60% of the cost for whatever it is for that company. So, it’s it’s a gold mine.

00;39;10;07 – 00;39;32;24
Speaker 1
It’s, like, you know, we get the little bit buried. You know, the MSP people don’t know that we’re an MVP. But we are, and we’ve been here, and, we’re, you know, it’s it’s a great benefit, in my humble opinion, to, I used to own a manufacturing company, and now I leverage the MSP services.

00;39;32;27 – 00;39;41;23
Speaker 1
When I did, and then. So anyway, that’s what the MVP is. Soup did not support for small and mid-sized manufacturers.

00;39;41;25 – 00;39;47;02
Speaker 2
It. Is there a cost to the manufacturers to take part of the program or is it.

00;39;47;05 – 00;40;09;26
Speaker 1
No. No cost. I mean, depends on what it is. We’ll go into a company. Let’s say you need ISO certification, and then you need, II training, and you want to get sales training, and you want lean, you know, we’ll there’s a cost that we charge for our services, and we bring third parties to the table, but then we leverage grants to cut that cost.

00;40;09;29 – 00;40;20;00
Speaker 1
You know, like, there’s no where you’re going to go that it’s going to be less expensive, frankly, through than through an MVP. So yeah.

00;40;20;03 – 00;40;40;29
Speaker 2
So and like you’re saying, you know, and again, I just I kind of want to detail this out for any of the manufacturer, organizations that may listen to the show is that it’s really an, overall, there’s no limits to how you guys are helping those manufacturers. Like you said, if it’s marketing, you go in, you’ll have conversations with them.

00;40;41;03 – 00;40;59;25
Speaker 2
Either give them help that you’re able to give them or work with them to find the solution, whether that’s an outside company or doing something internally. If it’s training, safety training, well, whatever it is, right, you’re going to go in there and help them make a, let’s say, an informed decision.

00;40;59;28 – 00;41;28;12
Speaker 1
Yeah, yeah. We want to be that trusted advisor and that’s, that’s what we’re here to do. And so sometimes the project may not even run through us. We’ll connect you to a resource, Pollution Prevention Institute, you know, which has its own funding. Or, you know, you got some specialized need and, you know, and Matt earlier mentioned the supply chain or I’m connected to our, my manufacturing base here.

00;41;28;15 – 00;42;05;17
Speaker 1
There’s every two weeks, a national newsletter that comes out with supply chain needs, right from somebody across the country. I can look at that. And I say, is there anybody in my region that can do that? So that became big when, you know, with tariffs and Covid, you know, you know, looking for domestic supply chains, I can get you the there’s nothing you can’t give me that I couldn’t send out to the rest of the country to locate somebody that could do what you’re looking for to be done that you’re currently purchasing overseas.

00;42;05;20 – 00;42;21;26
Speaker 1
So, yeah, it’s a it’s a great, great network, very passionate people. And so for those manufacturers, there’s we’re two hours from any manufacturer. So there’s an MVP in your state. Reach out to them.

00;42;21;28 – 00;42;31;04
Speaker 2
Amazing. And to to Derek’s point earlier to right the power of networking and, you know, leveraging who you know and what they know, right?

00;42;31;06 – 00;42;56;15
Speaker 1
Yeah. And, you know, there’s some large companies who don’t even know within their backyard, maybe they’re getting something sourced from China or India or even California that he in Cambridge is a company that can deliver that they just don’t know. And so that’s part of the value that we bring to the table. At the end of the day, it’s helping them grow, create more jobs, create more economic benefit for the region.

00;42;56;17 – 00;43;03;07
Speaker 1
I love it. What do you think is, you know, similarity or can you name one similarity.

00;43;03;08 – 00;43;21;25
Speaker 2
One difference between the workforce today that they, you’re working with to get into manufacturers versus when you were in business and had your own manufacturing business?

00;43;21;27 – 00;43;45;04
Speaker 1
You know, getting spot again. Yeah, I know it’s a it’s a bit interesting question. You know, most companies that I’ve talked to, you know, before, I used to be a warm body, you know, they they’ll take anybody. Now they want some that, you know, have some basic skills, but they’ll train to those skills. What you need is work ethic.

00;43;45;07 – 00;44;09;12
Speaker 1
You know, some communication skills. Those soft skills are still what’s going to help you proceed. And again, with through some of the programs we we talked about earlier, we can help those people get those. But, you know, showing up on time, being professional, being able to communicate with somebody, all those things remain really important. If you have some math skills.

00;44;09;14 – 00;44;32;00
Speaker 1
I think, you know, that’s going to help in these days. You know, just about every college is now starting to implement some AI training as well, because it’s, it’s it’s what’s going to be required. And, you know, there isn’t a day that goes by that our staff isn’t using it. Right? For as a thought partner to solve.

00;44;32;00 – 00;45;05;13
Speaker 1
So to help think through some problems. And so I think that that is coming. Right. It’s starting to happen though, the I’ll say the AI skills, but I foundation in math people skills, communication skills are always going to be huge gamut. Maybe you have, some to add to that, but I think maybe a lot of that it is, I would say a lot of what you said down to just maybe a different way to say it is we I think we are, you know, this newer generation is a bit more tech savvy.

00;45;05;13 – 00;45;32;28
Speaker 1
They’ve grown up, you know, with some sort of of, microprocessor in front of them, whether that’s on the, on a phone or a computer or whatnot. Now sometimes that creates the communication, the verbal, when you still have to communicate verbally, with a coworker and whatnot. It’s creating some of those challenges. But I think, you know, that that’s probably one of the things as we, you know, do look to train younger individuals into some of these career paths.

00;45;32;28 – 00;46;05;07
Speaker 1
Their ability to adapt to technology is quicker. I feel them. And, you know, maybe it was, you know, the the job seekers and the trainees that we are working with, you know, 15, 20, 30 years ago, associated with, yeah. And, you know, I think it’s, the there, there probably, you know, there is also an aspect of having to understand and build in, some levels of flexibility.

00;46;05;07 – 00;46;31;23
Speaker 1
I mean, I think that that the newer demographic of worker is demanding, you know, a work life balance, which I, you know, I frankly, I think it’s a good thing. Right. It. Yeah. There, you know, we we you can burn people out very, very quickly. And that’s just going to cause turnover and turnover. You know, every company should have a turnover analysis and understand what the cost of turnover is to their organization.

00;46;31;23 – 00;46;52;25
Speaker 1
You know, broken down by that. So I think this the newer the newer generation of workers are coming in wanting some of that work life balance. And I think there’s a great opportunity for, for the MEPs and other across all sectors, not just the MEP and manufacturing, to, to to understand what does work life balance look like.

00;46;52;28 – 00;47;00;26
Speaker 1
Within hours a fit into your culture. And how do you staff appropriately to be able to do that.

00;47;00;29 – 00;47;17;28
Speaker 2
Guys. And I know we’re getting short on time. Just real quick. If each one of you wouldn’t mind just, you know, if there’s one thing about the work that you’re doing that CG that you want listeners to hear, what would it be?

00;47;18;00 – 00;47;22;28
Speaker 2
Matt, you’re on my screen. So we’ll start with you. Put the pressure on you first.

00;47;23;01 – 00;47;49;25
Speaker 1
Oh. I, I really think, you know, the, the broader role of CGI, deals with, you know, regional economic development and, and a lot of times, I think people think that economic development, when they think of that, they think it’s about, you know, bringing in the global foundries or attracting the micron, you know, the big, big project.

00;47;49;27 – 00;48;28;06
Speaker 1
And, economic development is also about the the core small business function. And, you, the individuals that are, you know, putting in the apple. I talked about work life balance, but the individuals are putting in those long days running, their own businesses and organizations and, and understanding the impact that those have. And that’s why these programs are so important is so that we can retain that small and mid-sized, you know, business base and it economic development is not all about just bringing it reeling in the big fish.

00;48;28;08 – 00;48;54;03
Speaker 1
Right. You know, as it relates to that and our connection to the Capital Region chamber. And thank you very much, Derek, for joining. Is, you know, Mark Egan, our president reminds us, you know, consistently that the mission of the chamber is not to create, a great business environment for businesses, but it’s to create a vibrant and growing economy and strong community.

00;48;54;06 – 00;49;18;07
Speaker 1
And there’s a piece of that that the chamber and CG plays that relates to creating a strong business environment and a strong workforce. But it’s really about creating, a growing and vibrant community, that type of, you know, place where, where people want to, to, to live, work and play. And, and I think that speaks to a broader mission that, you know, CG is part of.

00;49;18;10 – 00;49;19;13
Speaker 1
Well said.

00;49;19;16 – 00;49;21;20
Speaker 2
Don, how about you?

00;49;21;22 – 00;49;49;27
Speaker 1
I mentioned it before. I’ll say it again. Manufacturing school. And, that’s what I would want people to know. And, you know, when you drive driving through these communities, there’s company making rocket ship domes for Elon Musk. There’s wave pools and iPhones and, you know, state of the art drugs your families are probably using for medicines, and everything stage sets that are in Broadway and everything in between.

00;49;49;27 – 00;50;04;17
Speaker 1
I mean, there is something for everybody. And it’s really cool stuff to to make stuff to make things, tangible things. And so, yeah, join our, join our group.

00;50;04;20 – 00;50;10;29
Speaker 2
And, where can people find you guys if they want to learn more? They want to they want to join your group?

00;50;11;01 – 00;50;41;26
Speaker 1
Yeah. CJ, Segall you know, you’ll find both Matt and I will mention we run a manufacturing solutions group. We do these bots and brews. We bring robots and robots into brew pods so people can kick the tires. It’s free for any manufacturer in the Capital Region. Every second Tuesday of the month, we do these knowledge at Noons, free for any manufacturer on whether it’s AI, workforce or, sales and marketing every second Tuesday of the month, free.

00;50;41;28 – 00;50;53;24
Speaker 1
So we’re on LinkedIn and Facebook. They can follow us there and participate in those events, all designed just to, you know, rising tide lifts all ships. So, that’s why we do it.

00;50;53;26 – 00;51;06;28
Speaker 2
Love it. Guys, thanks so much for coming on. I really appreciate spending time and talking to our, our audience and, educating more on what CG does and how you guys helping the trades and blue collar and gray collar folks appreciate it.

00;51;07;00 – 00;51;14;15
Speaker 1
Awesome. Thank you guys for what you do. Yeah. Thanks for having us. Giving us an opportunity. Yeah. Thank you.

00;51;14;18 – 00;51;33;09
Speaker 2
Thanks, everybody for listening. Of course, you can find us at Blue Collar Startup that io this episode and all episodes are listed on their website with some descriptions and other information. You can also find us on Spotify, Rumble, Apple, YouTube like and subscribe. All those things and, appreciate everybody for listening and we’ll hear from us next week, everybody.

00;51;33;14 – 00;52;01;13
Speaker 1
And that wraps up another episode of Blue Collar Startup. A big thank you to our sponsors, Five Towers Media, Daigle Cleaning Systems, Daigle Fire Solutions, The Michaels Group, Martin Electric, MLB construction, Pinocchio Construction People, and Catamount Consulting for making this podcast possible. And thank you for tuning in. If you learned something or felt inspired. Connect with us on our website at Blue Collar Startup Bio or email us at hardhat Dot CSU at gmail.com.

00;52;01;13 – 00;52;14;11
Speaker 1
We’d love to hear your questions and topic ideas. Help us spread the word by sharing the show and following us on social media for updates. Until next time, keep on building. Keep on dreaming and keep hustling like your future depends on it.

00;52;14;14 – 00;52;23;17
Unknown
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00;52;23;19 – 00;52;24;25
Unknown
Oh!