NEW CASTLE, Pa. – The large crowd present at the inaugural all-member meeting of the Lawrence Mercer Manufacturers Coalition Tuesday serves as a signal that the new organization is already having an impact across the region, its members say.
“We were so pleased with the turnout,” said Anna Barensfeld, vice president of strategic initiatives at Ellwood and LMMC’s board president. “We’ve been working for several years now getting this organization off the ground, and to see the turnout today means that we’re resonating.”
More than 80 representatives of the manufacturing sector, education, community organizations, government and associated businesses attended the meeting Tuesday morning at the Lawrence County Career and Technical Center.
LMMC was formed with the cooperation of the Mahoning Valley Manufacturers Coalition, an organization established in 2011 by founding manufacturing companies in response to the declining industrial labor force in the region. The MVMC has since been successful in attracting more than 70 member manufacturers in Mahoning, Trumbull and Columbiana counties, as well as development and educational institutions. The organization has developed youth outreach programs, career pathway initiatives, training programs and apprenticeship opportunities.
Manufacturing leaders in Lawrence and Mercer counties are now moving forward with their own initiative to encourage young people to consider careers in the field, Barensfeld said.
The Lawrence Mercer Manufacturers Coalition has outlined four priorities to guide the organization: develop career pathways for young people to enter the manufacturing trades; pursue training and upskilling programs; youth outreach; and membership and engagement growth.
Among the efforts now underway include Talent Factory, an outreach program targeting young people that markets careers in manufacturing available in Lawrence and Mercer counties, Barensfeld said. “It’s going to start with a website that’s going to pull a lot of career advancement resources together in one place,” she said.
The initiative will also include a marketing component that reaches out through social media and other outlets highlighting career pathways under the Talent Factory brand, she said.
Another element is a manufacturing readiness program that is a four-week, learn and earn effort that introduces those with little or no manufacturing experience to the field, Barensfeld said.
“It’s for those who don’t have manufacturing experience,” she said. “Maybe you have just graduated from high school and don’t want to go to college but you want to get into manufacturing, you could sign up for this boot camp,” she said. The program is also open to those who might be in another line of work but are considering manufacturing as a career.
It’s also beneficial for employers, Barensfeld said. Manufacturers, for example, would have a group of certified employee candidates via the readiness program who have been vetted by drug testing, background checks and entry level skills training. “It increases that workforce pipeline,” she said.
Julie Michael Smith, MVMC coalition manager, said the Ohio organization has worked closely over the past year with economic development groups such as Penn-Northwest Development Corp. and Forward Lawrence to help LMMC’s efforts, especially in youth outreach.
“Focusing on engaging youth really is an essential tenet of the organization,” she said. “Even in these early stages, we’ve made great strides.”
In October, for example, LMMC members addressed various schools during Manufacturing Day, speaking directly to students about a future in manufacturing. Organization members have also attended career fairs, established a partnership with Lawrence County School to Work and supported the purchase of equipment for plant tours, and partnered with Mercer County United Way to launch a Manufacturing Career Camp for high school students in June.
Dave Douglass, operations manager at Hall Industries in Ellwood City, Pa., and treasurer of LMMC, said he entered the manufacturing workforce directly upon graduating from the Columbiana County Career and Technical Center 20 years ago. “I’ve been working my way through the ranks,” he said, beginning with basic machining to learning new operations, which opened opportunities in leadership and management.
“For me, manufacturing has been a very rewarding career,” he said. “I can assure you, each and every director on the board is passionate about manufacturing careers, manufacturing in the region and how we can grow and support it.”
It’s nevertheless important that manufacturers take the lead role in guiding this organization, emphasized MVMC member Brian Benyo of Brilex Group of Companies, based in Youngstown. It was Benyo who initially fostered the idea of a manufacturers coalition in 2011 to respond to the needs of industry in the wake of the Great Recession. Benyo delivered the keynote address during the meeting.
“Manufacturing needs to be in front of the bus driving,” Benyo said. “Ultimately, if manufacturers are not driving this bus, and we don’t have a sense of direction and purpose, it’s probably not going to be very successful.”
Benyo said MVMC over the past 14 years was successful in developing a sustainable model that was led by industry, training partners that aligned their activities and engaged the community.
“We went from 15 founding member companies to 70 manufacturers as members,” Benyo said. “The coalition is about what’s in it for the community, and that’s where you bring in supporting partners. That’s what’s made us successful.”
Since 2011, MVMC, for example, has raised more than $25 million in outside state and federal funding directed to workforce training programs, Benyo said. Such an effort could be replicated in western Pennsylvania, he noted.
“The money is there,” he said.
The Lawrence Mercer Manufacturers Coalition has six founding manufacturer members: Ellwood, Hall Industries, Berner International, Blair Strip Steel Co., Wheatland Steel Processing and G.W. Becker Crane. It has also established partnerships with Forward Lawrence, Lawrence County School-to-Work, Penn-Northwest Development Corp. and the West Central Job Partnership.
The next step is to grow the organization’s membership and assess the programs LMMC wants to develop, Ellwood’s Barensfeld said. “We really need their input to make sure the programs we’re developing work for them, work for the community, work for the kids that we’re trying to raise visibility with – we need their buy-in,” she said.
Pictured at top: Dave Douglass, operations manager at Hall Industries, and Anna Barenfeld, vice president of strategic initiatives at Ellwood.