HERMITAGE, Pa. – Maureen Dora, a single mother and a Sharon, Pa., resident, had been working a “dead end job” with no prospects for advancing herself when she saw something on social media about women in welding.
The item piqued her interest, and her research led her to visit Laurel Technical Institute, “right around the corner from my house,” and she sat in on one of the welding courses, she recalled.
“It blew my mind,” she said.
After completing a 12-month program at Laurel, the 33-year-old is just a few days in as a welder at G.W. Becker Inc., a Hermitage company that manufactures and services overhead cranes. She is impressed with how clean the plant is, the emphasis on safety and how accommodating the company and her co-workers are as a new welder.
Attracting more individuals like Dora into manufacturing and clearing up some of the misconceptions about manufacturing today are among the objectives being pursued by the Lawrence Mercer Manufacturers Coalition.
Formed in 2023, the coalition’s membership stands at 15, said Julie Michael Smith, coalition manager.
“In order for this region to thrive, manufacturing has to thrive as well,” she said.
“As manufacturers, we’re great at making things. We’re not so good at tooting our own horn or necessarily being out there in the media and helping the next generation see what we do,” said Anna Barensfeld, president of LMMC’s board.
How It Started
The idea for the initiative came about roughly seven years ago, through a workforce development collaboration between Ohio and Pennsylvania. The collaboration, which involved Ohio’s Mahoning Valley Manufacturers Coalition, inspired western Pennsylvania manufacturers to form a similar organization.
“MVMC has been an invaluable resource,” said Smith, who also works with MVMC. While the two organizations face many of the same kinds of challenges, there are differences. MVMC’s territory includes two significant urban centers, Youngstown and Warren, and the social and racial makeup of the communities are different from the more rural western Pennsylvania counties.
In addition, some of the larger employers in the northeastern Ohio counties have more of an emphasis on electric vehicles, she said. Also, many of the western Pennsylvania manufacturing employers are more “job shop oriented.”
Through the leadership of founding members, including G.W. Becker, Ellwood, Hall Industries, Berner International, Wheatland Steel Processing and Blair Strip Steel Co., the group was able to secure startup funding from West Central Job Partnership, nearly $1 million from the U.S. Department of Labor and $236,000 from the commonwealth of Pennsylvania.
There were nearly 350 establishments engaged in manufacturing in Mercer and Lawrence counties in 2023, according to labor market research. The same research showed manufacturing employment in the two counties was just shy of 12,000 positions, about 70% of whom were employed in Mercer County, and average annual wage was just under $70,000.
Filling Positions
The need to form the coalition grew out of the recognition that recruitment has become more difficult over the past few decades and the recognition that the old methods of filling positions were no longer working, Barensfeld said. The vice president of strategic initiatives at Ellwood Group in Ellwood City attributes the success of the 115-year-old metals manufacturer to its commitment to the long term.
“We’re thinking about decades of success into the future, and to do that you have to have the right team. It’s our most important asset,” Barensfeld said. Eight years ago, Ellwood began taking “a much more strategic approach to what we called our people strategy,” and really changed the way it conducted recruiting, onboarding, training and development activities, and becoming more involved in the community.
“It continues to be a challenge to recruit individuals to enter into manufacturing for a variety of reasons,” Smith said. Those reasons include a shrinking population base, declining birthrates, an aging existing workforce and the lack of understanding of what manufacturing is and the types of career pathways it offers.
Changing Perceptions
Barensfeld acknowledged that finding high-quality talent to staff her organization was easier during the 1980s and 1990s, when other heavy manufacturers in the region were shutting down. Recruiting has become more difficult since the early 2000s, as people in the region and in the country at large have “lost track of manufacturing as an appealing and rewarding career pathway,” she said.
“It is a challenge to make sure that the next generation understands what manufacturing is like today. There’s a perception that it’s an old-fashioned, unsafe, dirty, nonvaluable industry,” she said.
Talking with her colleagues at other manufacturers in Mercer and Lawrence counties, they determined that they were all facing similar challenges and saw the success of the Mahoning Valley Manufacturers Coalition in addressing the workforce challenges it faced.
There are “a lot of open jobs that are out there,” and there are companies competing for workers to fill them, said Chris Becker, president of G.W. Becker. His company needs “multi-craft or multi-skilled people” to service cranes, whether made by his company or others.
“We need skill sets that encompass mechanical and electrical skills, and that is very difficult to find, more recently more so than ever before,” he said.
He also agreed there is a stigma attached to the manufacturing industry and careers from previous generations.
“We’re still producing the same end product that companies did years ago,” but the manufacturing processes have changed and “gone high tech,” he added. “Our need for general laborers, welders, electricians, fitters, fabricators and service technicians really was the impetus for us to join like-minded manufacturers in helping promote career readiness and engagement with the workforce.”
Major Initiatives
About two years in now, LMMC is “off the ground” and starting to work on projects, Barensfeld said.
“We didn’t want to jump into this without doing some research, seeing what works, what best practices other people were able to achieve in accomplishing similar goals,” Becker said.
Barensfeld identified two major initiatives underway this year.
One is a manufacturing readiness program, she said. Many people might be considering manufacturing careers but lack the skill sets to be ready on Day One, from knowing how to operate the machines or use the tools necessary in a manufacturing environment to how to be effective on the job from a communications or preparation standpoint. The program is being put together to assist high school and trade school graduates as well as job switchers.
Modeled on MVMC’s Work Advance drug testing program but tailored to LMMC’s needs, the program also will look to shorten the time to hire by having candidates go through background checks, physical exams and pre-employment testing as part of the process so they can “hit the ground running” when hired, Barensfeld said.
The other is a marketing initiative to make youths aware of the careers available in manufacturing, she said. The objective is not just to provide this information to youths, their parents, career counselors and teachers so they can understand what it takes to be successful in manufacturing, what careers are available and what education or training is required for those careers.
‘Strong Relationships’
The organization also benefits from having a committed board of directors that has grown from the six founding members to eight.
“They are a very engaged board, very hands on,” Smith said, “There isn’t a day that goes by that I’m not in contact with any of our board members.”
Becker said LMMC is encouraged by the cooperation seen not only from member companies and potential members but also existing organizations within the region, such as Penn-Northwest Development Corporation, Forward Lawrence and West Central Job Partnership.
“Even though an industry sector partnership is driven by manufacturers, it can’t succeed without having strong relationships with the community-based organizations,” Smith said. “Economic development organizations, certainly K-12 and the post-secondary partners are a crucial aspect and an important collaborator in the process, so we spend a lot of time getting out in the community.”
Other partner organizations that have relationships with the K-12 system include Penn-Northwest’s Homegrown Initiative and the Mercer County United Way, which has “a robust portfolio of after-school programs,” Smith said. This year, LMMC is collaborating with the United Way on a summer camp where students can explore manufacturing careers. In conjunction with PNDC and Northwest Industrial Resource Center, the coalition will relaunch the “What’s So Cool About Manufacturing” program targeting middle school-age students.
Manufacturers in the two counties are making “utterly critical products that help make the world go around,” using advanced technologies and methods, a story that LMMC can help tell, Barensfeld said.
“It’s very important for manufacturers to be involved in this effort, large and small,” Smith emphasized. “I know sometimes the smaller manufacturers are concerned that their voices won’t be heard, but I can assure you that they will be.”
Pictured at top: From left are Chris Becker, Julie Michael Smith and Anna Barensfeld.