7. EDSR 10-08-2012 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Elk River has more than 60 manufacturers, who employ more than 900 people.They make things such as the Jack Link's wrappers on beef jerky (Quality Label)to plastic sailboats in Great Clips Salons across the nation (Classic Acrylics). Businesses such as Alliance Machine, M&M Machine and Faribault Foods have been participants in the Sherburne County Manufacturers Connection.So have Elk River, Princeton, Becker and Big Lake schools. Tuesday's meeting was held at Glenn Metalcraft in Princeton. It was the third in a series of meetings between manufacturers and community development and economic development departments in Elk River, Big Lake, Becker and Princeton. Up to this week it has been informational in nature.All things seemed to point to a meeting with schools and manufacturers. Manufacturers locally and across the nation are grappling with a workforce shortage.School administrators are trying to figure out the best possible plan of action for this brave new world they find themselves in, while at the same time make decisions about the costly nature of shop classes. "My dream is to influence some of these guys coming out of high school that don't have a career path chosen yet," said Brian Provo, the owner of Alliance Machine and an Elk River graduate himself."There's a good living to be made fora lot of people. "There's a lot of manufacturing in Sherburne County, and we're all in desperate need of help. I'd give my eyeteeth for a dozen more people right now." People are needed to be machinists and to work with robotics and other forms of automation. These jobs do not align very well with the stereotypical images people have a factory laborers. "Ninety percent of the job is monitoring robots and computers," said Provo, who also serves on the Elk River Economic Development Authority."They do less handwork than ... I do in a day.A lot of it's like the work of a brain surgeon. Measure twice.Cut once." These workers need to come in with some experience and baseline knowledge.That's why they are looking to high schools and two-year tech schools for help. "The manufacturers want to see how we can improve the skilled labor force, and prepare kids for good jobs that are and will be out there," Elk River High School Principal Terry Bizal said. "And we want see what they can do to help us make the most of our curriculum." Does that mean scaling back in one area that is fading to embrace another that is taking off? Does that mean apprenticeships or internships for high school students? Maybe it means schools