Last week General Motors announced they will start manufacturing the Chevrolet Equinox at its plant in Tennessee. They also plan to start producing additional midsized cars there in the near future. The $244 million investment is expected to create almost 1,900 jobs at the former Saturn plant located just outside of Nashville. To get the ball rolling, General Motors will initially invest $61 million and plans to generate nearly 700 jobs to begin producing the Equinox by July of 2012. The remaining $183 million will be invested to manufacture 2015 models of unnamed midsized vehicles and create another 1,200 jobs. GM officials would not say more in an attempt to keep their competition on their toes. The upcoming move will allow General Motors to react to the growing demand for a greater variety of models.

In Idaho things are less definite but hopes are just as high. Zonda USA, a Chinese manufacturer of electric buses plans to move its U.S. office to Boise, Idaho in the next year and eventually start producing its electric buses in the southwestern Idaho region. Although the Chinese corporation has refrained from announcing when and where a manufacturing plant would be built or just how many jobs the plant opening could create, local Idaho government officials are optimistic of the move but are also realistic in that nothing is definite yet and the process may take some time. At its Chinese plant, Zonda USA, a branch of Zhongda Industrial Group in the United States, can produce nearly 15,000 buses in a year with a workforce of about 6,900 employees. Zhonga decided on Idaho due to the fact that the region is located relatively close to Pacific Ocean shipping ports and conveys a business-friendly outlook. Elected Idaho officials realize the project is only in the beginning stages of becoming a full-fledged move to their region but that has not stopped them from growing eager about the possibility. Nampa, Idaho Mayor, Tom Dale, said, “They’re a prominent company in China, and the technology with these electric buses seems to be leading edge.” Only time will tell what will become of this project, but the hope is that it will boost the local economy and create thousands of U.S. manufacturing jobs.

With the possibility of new manufacturing plants opening in the near future, plant managers need to be sure employees are trained and educated to their full potential. ITC learning is dedicated to providing full motion courseware, CD-ROM courses and online courseware that focus on essential industrial

With the economy seemingly inching towards recovery, manufacturing managers seem to be more confident in posting more job positions. However, as we discussed previously, filling these positions with skilled workers has proven to be a difficult task. Many prospective hires are in fact hard working individuals eager to work. But often they lacked the essential skills necessary to work effectively and efficiently in a plant. So, how can manufacturers ensure their new hires are properly trained and suited for the position?

More than often new hires have had some form of manufacturing experience, but their skills may not be specific to the job you hired them for. Industrial training is a sure way to know your employees are trained for the job they do every day. By implementing the industrial skills training necessary for your employees to perform their jobs well, you’ll discover you can mold the perfect employee. Instead of waiting around for someone else to produce the knowledgeable employee you’re searching for take the opportunity to create the worker your company needs. In 2009 it was reported that employers spent approximately $126 billion on employee training and development. Numbers like this prove that developing the skills of industrial employees is something worth investing in.

Through the use of online industrial training, like ITC Learning’s, you present your plant with the opportunity to tailor online courseware and develop homegrown talent and avoid having to wait around for the right employee to find you. Industrial skills training programs that utilize SCORM based software and full motion video courseware provide trainees with the critical knowledge and functions of their jobs that they would likely have not learned through conventional training on the plant floor. When new hires are trained solely on the floor, trainers often skip steps because they’ve run through the process so often they simply forget to relay every detail. However, in online manufacturing training trainees are taught processes and methods step by step so that nothing is left out. Online industrial training also allows employees to understand how the machines they work with operate and why processes are done a certain way so they can properly troubleshoot any situation that may arise without having to ask someone else for assistance.

Ultimately, industrial training is an effective way to properly train your workers for the job they were hired to do. With ITC Learning’s online courseware you can track the progress of your employees and tailor each course to suit your plant’s specific needs. Contact us today to learn more.

The Association for Manufacturing Excellence has been a driving force behind the Rebirth of Manufacturing Jobs initiative. The project hopes to stimulate the manufacturing job market by reaching out to policy makers locally and nationally. The goal of the program is to get executives and government officials motivated to join and develop efforts to increase awareness of the green movement and manufacturing’s goal in it. It also aims to unite nearby businesses into groups, also called consortia. The objective of the consortia is to increase productivity and solve problems linked to regulations, access to resources and lack of a well trained work force. The end result will hopefully revitalize the industry’s business and increase the demand for skilled industrial workers. However, the government will need to take a stand for this initiative to be successful. By building awareness first and eventually a framework and infrastructure, policy makers will allow consortiums to create a network of productive and environmentally conscious manufacturers.

Over the years manufacturing jobs have rarely been hard to fill. However, with budget cuts and downsizing as a result of the recession taking a toll on the industry, reports show that nearly 32% of manufacturers found it difficult to fill jobs due to lack of skill and improper training. While there are plenty of workers with experience, many lack extensive training that can become a determining factor in the selection process.

ITC Learning is dedicated to training and retraining industrial employees. Our interactive courseware and easy to use management software are ideal for any business. As the economy inches towards recovery, well trained workers will become an important commodity to all manufacturers. Adequate training and advanced skill sets will make workers more marketable in the job market and more likely to land a job in the industry.