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Gateway Technical College lays foundation for an ‘Industry 4.0’ future

Gateway Technical College is preparing a new career pathway aimed at teaching advanced manufacturing skills to high school students and beyond.
By Matt Parke
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Gateway Technical College (GTC) is gearing up for a major shift for Wisconsin’s workforce development with the creation of a new advanced manufacturing career pathway and certification training.

Last December, the school announced its partnership with Taiwan-based electronics manufacturer Foxconn Technology Group to assist in creating a 13,000-strong workforce for Foxconn’s liquid crystal display panel factory. Early reports are emerging on how GTC and the Wisconsin Technical College system are responding to the company’s need for skilled workers.

“Foxconn has been a great asset to us in helping us to understand the role that community and technical colleges will play, but also the types of content and curriculum that will be necessary to sustain a workforce,” GTC President Bryan Albrecht said in the Community College Daily report.

GTC is no stranger to creating public-private partnerships and industry-aligned skills-training based programs. WorkingNation featured GTC’s Horizon Center for Transportation Technology and its partnership with Snap-on Incorporated as part of its Do Something Awesome mini-documentary series.

The video and story highlight the solution for a shortage of automotive technicians and manufacturing workers through the stories of graduate Nicholas Schick and student Michael Wittrock. At the Horizon Center, both Schick and Wittrock trained with the latest in Snap-on tools and diagnostic equipment. Students can earn stackable industry-recognized certifications through GTC as well as participate in the paid MOPAR CAP apprenticeship program.

As rapid advances in clean energy, digital and automation technologies change the automotive industry and drive demand for skilled workers, manufacturing is also undergoing a similar transition during what is called Industry 4.0 or the Fourth Industrial Revolution. Factories are becoming smarter and more efficient even before they are built, thanks to robotics, artificial intelligence and Internet of Things tech. Repetitive low-skilled tasks are being automated, leading to fewer workers on factory floors.

According to a World Economic Forum report released last week, 1.4 million jobs in the U.S. are threatened with obsolescence due to this technological disruption. Transitioning low-skilled manufacturing workers into roles in electronics installation requires reskilling. And more jobs in this growing sector require a post-secondary certificate, according to a Wisconsin State Journal report on the state’s skilled labor shortage.

Those who can successfully ascend to these skills can make an hourly wage at or above a “living wage” in the state. Graduates with a two-year associate degree in electronic engineering can expect to make between $20-25 an hour.

To adapt to the demands of Industry 4.0, Albrecht told the Racine Journal-Times that the school’s new career pathway is being developed with Foxconn and area high schools to create a seamless workforce pipeline. He noted that the partnerships would keep the “programs as current as possible” to best prepare the workforce for “emerging job markets.”

Photo – GTC.edu

Foxconn began its partnership with GTC last September and have worked out of the school’s SC Johnson Integrated and Manufacturing Engineering Technology Center in Sturtevant. That same month, GTC submitted a $5 million grant proposal to expand the iMET center and add the capacity to train an additional 1,000 students each semester.

Responding to the immediate demand for skilled workers has also thrust GTC to the forefront of a consortium of Wisconsin’s universities and technical colleges. Albrecht told the Community College Daily that the consortium can continue the career pathway for students into four-year engineering degrees and beyond. Foxconn estimated that it will need 2,400 high skilled workers with advanced degrees.

“We work with all of the regional providers of higher education to make sure that we’re providing, first of all, the right curriculum and then, second, that that curriculum is ‘pathwayed’ into advanced careers,” Albrecht said.

Classes for the Industry 4.0 career pathway could begin as early as the Fall 2018 semester. GTC is hosting an Industry 4.0 open house in February for high school students and families to explore this new career pathway.

For more information on the program, check out the GTC website and proposal for this curriculum by clicking here.

Join the Conversation: Tell us your thoughts about GTC’s new program on our Facebook page.

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Dana Beth Ardi

Executive Committee

Dana Beth Ardi, PhD, Executive Committee, is a thought leader and expert in the fields of executive search, talent management, organizational design, assessment, leadership and coaching. As an innovator in the human capital movement, Ardi creates enhanced value in companies by matching the most sought after talent with the best opportunities. Ardi coaches boards and investors on the art and science of building high caliber management teams. She provides them with the necessary skills to seek out and attract top-level management, to design the ideal organizational architectures and to deploy people against strategy. Ardi unearths the way a business works and the most effective way for people to work in them.

Ardi is an experienced business executive and senior consultant who leverages business organizational transformation through talent strategies. She uses her knowledge and experience to develop talent strategies to enhance revenue and profit contributions. She has a deep expertise in change management and organizational effectiveness and has designed and built high performance cultures. Ardi has significant experience in mergers, acquisitions, divestitures, IPO’s and turnarounds.

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Ardi is currently the Managing Director and Founder of Corporate Anthropology Advisors, LLC, a consulting company that provides human capital advisory and innovative solutions to companies building value through people. Corporate Anthropology works with organizations, their cultures, the way they grow and develop, and the people who are responsible for forming their communities of work.

Prior to her position at Corporate Anthropology Advisors, Ardi served as a Partner/Managing Director at the private equity firms CCMP Capital and JPMorgan Partners. She was a partner at Flatiron Partners, a venture capital firm working with early state companies where she pioneered the human capital role within an investment portfolio.

Ardi holds a BS from the State University of New York at Buffalo as well as a Masters degree and PhD from Boston College. She started her career as professor at the Graduate Center at Fordham University in New York.

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