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More and more technical schools are finding it difficult to attract newcomers to their manufacturing-related courses. Shrinking class sizes, of course, will place your entire manufacturing program in jeopardy. No school can maintain a program if no one registers for its classes. And we know of more than one school that has eliminated its manufacturing program due to dwindling attendance.

Most technical schools and community colleges cater to industry that is within a short distance (up to fifty miles or so) from the school. And unfortunately, your manufacturing program/s may be at the mercy of the health of local industry. If local industry is thriving, your classes are probably full. But if companies in your area are struggling, so may be your manufacturing programs. While your school can probably weather a short-term lull, it will be more difficult to keep your manufacturing program together if the down-turn continues for an extended period.

Get to know the manufacturers in your area

While there are schools that serve a national employer base, most technical schools (including community colleges that have manufacturing courses) must cater first and foremost to local industry. For these schools, satisfying local industry will be of paramount importance. It’s pretty simple. Those schools that serve the needs of local industry will thrive. Those that don’t will eventually fail.

How well you’re satisfying your local industry is pretty easy to determine. Schools that satisfy local industry will have excellent placement ratios for graduating students (probably over 90%). There will be a waiting list for companies anxious to hire the people the school graduates. This makes it relatively easy to attract new students since students will be secure in the knowledge that they’ll be able to find a job after graduation.

If you're truly serving the needs of local industry, companies will be sending their employees to your classes – or better yet – they’ll be contracting you to conduct courses on their own premises. And there is no better endorsement for a local technical school's program than having a large percentage of the manufacturers it serves sending people to the school.

Admittedly, there are other factors that contribute to the success of any manufacturing-related curriculum – not the least of which is the number and status of companies in your school’s area. Unfortunately, some instructors can count on one hand the number of major manufacturing companies their school serves. And, of course, the local business climate will have a lot to do with whether or not companies are interested in providing training to their employees – or whether they will be hiring when your students graduate.

Who’s in your area?

Technical instructors should be very well versed with the manufacturing companies in the region served by their school. Products being produced, processes being performed, and location of customers served by local companies are among the general things you should know.

You should also get to know the people in key positions. Who’s the manager of Human Resources? Who manages the Manufacturing Engineering department? Who is the plant manager? While you may be hesitant to contact companies to meet and get to know these people, you may be surprised at how receptive they are once you work up the nerve to contact them. Progressive managers are always looking for ways to train their personnel.

Remember, most manufacturing companies are constantly struggling to hire and keep qualified people. They’ve probably attempted their own in-plant training programs with limited success. When an instructor from the local technical college calls to see if the school can help, most manufacturing people will jump at the opportunity to expand their training resources.

What skills are required?

Interested instructors will strive to determine what their students will be doing once they graduate and begin working in a local company. Only with this knowledge can an instructor prepare an appropriate curriculum. As you talk to key people in local manufacturing companies, find out what they require. Additionally, find out what problems they are currently having when it comes to the proficiency of their work force.

Be prepared for some criticism

People working in local companies have probably had some previous experience with your school. Maybe they’ve hired some of your graduates. Maybe they’ve attended some of your classes. Or maybe they know people that have. It’s likely that they have some pre-conceived notions about what your school does. And it may not be all good. Be sure that the people you talk to understand that the whole point of your visit is to gain an understanding of what the company expects of employees so you can better accommodate these needs.

Don’t ignore small companies

While your biggest potential for new students may come from larger companies, remember that most larger companies have a series of local suppliers (commonly called contract shops or job shops). The people working in these smaller companies often need more training than people working in larger companies – especially when it comes to actually working with CNC machines. So if you can serve the needs of smaller companies, it’s likely that you’ll have no trouble doing so for larger companies. Additionally, having success with a small company in your area may be a way to get your foot in the door to the larger companies this company supplies. Don’t forget – people in small companies have the best contacts in larger companies.

Get busy!

Truly – your best potential for new students comes from local industry. Get out and meet them!

Find ways to help local industry thrive

You must not consider this beyond the scope of what you can do as a technical school instructor. Think about how your school can enhance a company's chances for success. When it comes to manufacturing training, and especially courses relative to CNC, many technical schools do little more than (very) basic training. While basic CNC training is very important to your local industry, consider offering classes that are aimed at a higher level of CNC person.

Expand your offerings to include more experienced manufacturing people. Manufacturing people are always looking for ways to improve the productivity of their manufacturing processes. If you can offer courses to help them achieve this goal, you may find your new offerings to be flooded with students! So not only will you be helping local industry to thrive, you'll be gaining a whole new group of potential students. This is a win-win situation if there ever was one!

Here are a two specific examples of courses we think your local industry will find particularly interesting. Note that we offer teaching curriculums for each of them. These curriculums include instructor's materials (To The Instructor Manual and PowerPoint slide presentations) and student materials (Course manual). But don't limit your potential. Find out what your local industry needs and develop courses to cater to these needs.

Setup reduction for CNC --- You'll never meet a manufacturing person that doesn't want to minimize the amount of time it takes to get machines ready to run production. We define setup time as the time it takes from machining the last workpiece in the most recent production run to making the first good workpiece (efficiently) in the next production run. Truly, the entire time a machine is down between production runs must be considered as setup. In this course, you'll first present the principles of setup reduction. These principles can be applied to any form of production equipment. Next, you'll present specific techniques that can be applied to reduce setup time for CNC machining centers and turning centers in the approximate order setups are made. Click here to see more information about this curriculum.

Cycle time reduction for CNC --- In similar fashion, all manufacturing people want to shorten the time it takes to complete a production run. Our definition of cycle time is the entire time it takes to complete a production run divided by how many good workpieces have been produced. Anything that adds to the length of time it takes to complete a production run must be considered part of cycle time. In this course, you'll first present the principles of cycle time reduction. These principles are quite similar to those related to setup reduction, with some subtle differences. Next, you'll present specific techniques that can be applied to reduce cycle time for CNC machining centers and turning centers, including techniques related to workpiece load/unload, reducing program execution time, reducing tool maintenance time, and streamlining other tasks an operator must perform during a production run.. Click here to see more information about this curriculum.

Recruit instructors from local industry

If you haven't already, look for experienced manufacturing people in your area to teach some of your manufacturing-related courses (on a part-time basis). You yourself may be one of these people. While you will, of course, need to approve course content, this is a sure-fire way to ensure that your courses will suit the needs of local manufacturers. It is also a great way to ensure that some of your graduates will get placed. I know of more than one manufacturing person that teaches part-time for their local technical college so they can get first pick of graduating students.

Work closely with local high schools

We cannot overstress the need for a technical school to cater to local industry. This should be your first and primary concern. If you're not serving the needs of local industry, you won't be able to place your graduates - and your program/s won't be around for long. Convincing the manufacturers in your area to take advantage of your school's training facilities should be at the heart of any recruiting you do. Ideally, the majority of your student base will be coming from local industry. Only with this objective achieved, should you begin recruiting from other sources.

Assuming you can place your graduates, your program will, of course, need students. One obvious place to find them is the local high schools in your area. Look first for high schools that have vocational programs. In many regional school districts, there is one central "vo-tech" high school that provides the vocational training for the region. This kind of school commonly has a metals program in which students are introduced to metal-working. The students in this program will make excellent candidates for your manufacturing program/s.

Note that many technical high schools provide excellent basic industrial training. Indeed, you may find that these students are hired by local manufacturers right after high school - so you may be competing with the high schools in your area! This is yet another reason why you must work closely with local industry. It's likely that these entry-level employees will still need quite a bit of training in order to become proficient. Companies are probably providing some kind of (costly) on-the-job training to bring new-hires up to speed. With an understanding of what local companies need, your program/s can help bridge this gap.

While the "vo-tech" type high school may provide your best source for candidates, get to know the guidance counsellors for all of the high schools in your area. A guidance counselor cannot, of course, guide potential students to your program if they don't know it is available.

Think outside the box

Technical schools have traditionally offered certificate and degree programs that require students to take a full load of courses. If your manufacturing program is struggling, try not to stick with traditional thinking. If you haven't already, consider open-in/open-out registration that allows students to attend classes on a more flexible schedule. Incorporate more self-study and on-line courses in your curriculum. And in general, make it as easy as possible for students to participate in your offerings.

Your school may already offer some form of in-plant training (commonly related to what some schools call "business education services"). If you don't currently offer this kind of training, especially for classes related to basic manufacturing skills like blueprint reading and shop math, you're probably missing out on a great deal of training business.

Another potential revenue generator to consider is to hold 1- 2- or 3-day seminars on selected topics. You (obviously) have the needed classroom facilities. You have the potential attendee base of local companies. Pick a hot topic (like setup reduction, lean manufacturing, geometric dimensioning and tolerancing, rapid prototyping, etc.) and prepare the needed course materials. Or contract an industry expert to make the presentation.

So you think your program isn't in trouble?

Even if your school's manufacturing program is pretty well attended, don't be too quick to think that all is well. Again, you're at the mercy of your local industry. Today's high-flying manufacturer may be tomorrow's victim of recession. Do your best to maintain contact with all of the manufacturers in your area, regardless of whether they're currently sending people to your classes.

Do you have a newsletter?

One great way stay in contact is to publish a periodical newsletter. It really doesn't take that much effort, especially if you limit the number of times you publish per year. I recommend a quarterly newsletter. Be sure to include topics of interest to manufacturing people, not just your school's class schedule (though you will want to let people know about your upcoming classes). Send your newsletter to key people in manufacturing companies (Human resources people, plant managers, engineering managers, etc.) as well as all of the high school guidance counsellors in your area.

You may, for example, pull some excerpts from your training materials (as long as you don't infringe on copyrights). It doesn't have to be long - a few pages per issue will suffice. Just get your school's name in front of local manufacturing people on a regular basis. Remind them that you're still around and ready to serve their training needs.

If your school sends out a general mailing, don't count on it to help with your manufacturing classes. For the best results, this newsletter should be written specifically for people in manufacturing, addressing topics that they'll find helpful and interesting.