A rapid networking event brought nearly two dozen manufacturers together with more than 250 students at Ozarks Technical Community College (OTC) in early October.
For the southwest Missouri manufacturers like Holloway America, SMC Packaging, CNH Reman and SRC Heavy, the event brought the opportunity to meet hundreds of would-be employees face-to-face before they graduate.
The event, which took place at the Plaster Manufacturing Center on the OTC Springfield Campus Oct. 5, gave students the chance to meet and engage with possible employers, as well as the opportunity to practice soft skills like shaking hands, making eye contact and asking thoughtful questions.
Some students even left with job offers in hand.
“This is not just a go-through-the-motions type of thing,” said Cody Flack, an automation and robotics student at OTC, who has attended the event two years in a row.
The companies at the event, Flack said, “are looking for employees. There's lots of jobs here right now.”
More than 12.7 million U.S. workers were employed in manufacturing in 2022, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. In Missouri, manufacturing accounted for nearly 12 percent of the total workforce last year, with the top industry being transportation equipment.
Career-fair speed-dating hybrid
OTC Industrial and Manufacturing Department Chair Danelle Maxell said this is her favorite OTC event, as it brings “forced engagement” from the college students.
Think of it like a “career-fair and speed-dating hybrid,” Maxell said. Groups of students shuffled through manufacturing employers table by table, spending about 10 minutes at each station. The students asked questions, engaged in conversations and learned more about the industry they plan on entering.
“Most of these are new students and this just opens their eyes to the diverse manufacturing opportunities in our region,” Maxell said, pointing out that many of the students present were in their first semester at OTC. “We have a lot. And most of them don’t know.”
The manufacturing department started speed networking events right before the COVID-19 pandemic hit, and plans to repeat it each year, Maxell said.
“It works, and we will stick with it because employers tell us it works,” she said.
The department hosts another networking event in the spring semester, but it's not in the same format, Maxell said.
Jobs offers in hand
Andrew Kirkpatrick, welding fabricator at Holloway America, said his company could “definitely” hand out a few job offers by the end of the day.
The event is “definitely more driven, because students are here to get the job and not just to get the handouts,” Kirkpatrick said.
Donny “Chops” Aten, the learning and development coordinator at Multi-Craft Contractors, Inc., said he's been coming to the event to scout for talent “since they've been putting it on.”
“The main advantage to this event is getting people excited about coming into the industry, getting them the information they need, and actual engagement with people in the field,” Aten said.
Not enough people, too much work
Multi-Craft, which has more than 1,000 employees in the region, is desperate for a new pool of teachable employees, Aten said. The U.S. manufacturing industry has a “backlog of work” for the next six years.
Those entering the industry are “in the most unique situation in human history where we have too much work and not enough people to do it,” Aten said. “It's an exciting time to be in trades right now.”
More than ever, employers are looking for soft skills, Aten said, along with the actual hand-on skills, like welding, needed in the manufacturing industry. Soft skills include being on time, dressing and behaving in a professional manner and limiting distractions at work, like using the phone, Aten said.
“We don't just push the hard skill of welding, we put a high emphasis on their employability skills,” Aten said.
A push for soft skills
It's those soft skills that OTC instructors are actively trying to teach, said Tammy Casey, career and workforce advisor at the OTC Career Success Center. She stands in front of classes regularly to teach students about how to sell themselves on resumes, how to behave in a professional manner in interviews, along with other many other critical skills employers look for.
The Career Success Center is in the process of putting together a “Dress for Success Clothing Closet,” which will house all types of professional clothing donated from the public and the OTC community, Casey said. It will give students the clothes necessary to look professional in job interviews.
Lydia Hopper, a student at OTC who attended the rapid networking event, said she received some coaching from professors on what to wear and how to act at the event. She said she was impressed with the networking opportunity.
“I've never been to a school that is so career-based,” Hopper, 17, said. “It's really nice to know that they actually want you to get a job.”
When asked if anything made him hopeful that 18-to-24 year-olds were developing the soft skills needed to survive in today's professional world, Aten said, “Yea, OTC.”
