5/26/17 – 4:58 A.M.

Business leaders and elected officials got together Thursday to talk about the lack of people willing to take manufacturing jobs in the area. Ryan Burgess is the director of the Governor’s Office of Workforce Transformation. He spoke at the meeting, saying there is little communication between business and education leaders across the state.

Burgess added collaborative efforts between businesses and schools have seen success. He said the collaborations that work the best are business led. He cited Cooper Tire & Rubber’s applied manufacturing class at Millstream as an example.

State Representative Bill Reinecke of Tiffin put the blame squarely on a a stigma that manufacturing isn’t a good career path. Reinecke said, “We’ve got to figure out how to handle this with the parents of the children, because the stigma is just killing us.” Rowmark CEO Duane Jebbett said 57 percent of the people who go to college don’t finish. He added that was an opportunity for manufacturers to grow their workforce.

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