By Dr. Paul Pierpoint, Dean, Community Education

We all see the labor statistics that show the decline in manufacturing jobs – especially the lower-skilled, good-paying ones that allow factory workers with little or no formal education to live good, middle-class lives on one income.

But to paraphrase Mark Twain, the reports of manufacturing's death in America are greatly exaggerated.

America continues to be by far the world's largest manufacturing economy and its lead is growing. The percentage of GNP created by manufacturing has changed little in the last 20 years. But what has changed dramatically is the number of people employed in manufacturing. Modern equipment and processes have allowed productivity increases by replacing semi-skilled workers with advanced technology. Fewer people are employed in manufacturing but the ones who are need to have skill sets far beyond anything the average factory worker even dreamed of just a few years ago.

It is ironic that in a time when we see steady decline in the number of jobs in manufacturing, most manufacturers cannot fill the jobs they do have because they can't find people with the skills they need.

Northampton Community College has been committed to meeting this need – and many others – in manufacturing for more than 25 years. That commitment has not wavered. We know that manufacturing is one of the critical foundation industries for a strong economy. We know that the long-term well-being of our community – as well as our state and nation – is dependent upon a healthy manufacturing sector.

That is why we have nearly 40 full-time employees just serving business and industry with training programs designed to continuously upgrade employee skills. That is why we created the National Training Center for Microelectonics in the 1980's to support electronics manufacturing. That is why we created the Electrotechnologies Application Center in the 1990's to help manufacturers adopt modern technology and processes to reduce pollution, improve energy efficiency and strengthen processes. That is why we established an Industrial Technology Training Center in LVIP VI. It is also why we have developed the region's only completely portable Industrial Maintenance Institute to train workers in the advanced manufacturing technology used today.

We believe manufacturing is worth fighting for, in this state and others. NCC and the Center for Business and Industry are committed to doing everything we can to keep manufacturing healthy and prospering in the Lehigh Valley. If you want to know what NCC can do to help manufacturers, please contact us.

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