Free Community College Is a Solid Path to Manufacturing Growth

We should embrace the idea that college prepares students for manufacturing – and the best way to do that is through the community college system.

By Ethan Karp, MAY 05, 2021

Opinion/Analysis

Ethan hears far too often that “manufacturing is the alternative to college.” It’s a false choice.

Maybe you don’t need an undergraduate degree for most entry-level factory jobs, but just like in other industries, manufacturing workers with college degrees get faster raises and more promotions; they gain more transferable skills and credentials that help if they lose one job to find another.

There’s a reason more than 55% of manufacturers help their workers pay for part-time college: they want college-educated people. They need the best and brightest to run the technology that’s increasingly commonplace on every shop floor (collaborative robots, automation, etc.). But those people are incredibly hard to find, and the result is there are tens of thousands of American manufacturers who can’t find enough skilled workers – even though they provide steady jobs with good benefits, career mobility and above-average wages.

So we should embrace the idea that college prepares students for manufacturing – and the best way to do that is through the community college system.

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