U.S. is #1 in Manufacturing and Needs Well Educated Students

The recent fear-laden joke is: “Wow, we don’t make anything in America anymore … what are we going to do for jobs, sell hamburgers to each other?”  But you may be surprised to learn that the U.S. still maintains the largest, most important manufacturing base of any nation in the world.  The U.S.’s manufacturing base is over twice the size of any other country including China or Japan.

In terms of the workforce needs of the United States, workers that are well educated and highly skilled will be in great demand for years to come.

In fact, according to Time Magazine, since 1990 America’s manufacturing output has increased $900 billion, roughly the size of Germany’s total output, and hey, Germany is a manufacturing monster!  The jobs are still here in the U.S., although shifting, changing and in many cases declining, but the jobs are different than in the past, requiring well educated highly skilled people. Each new manufacturing job represents a much higher output in individual productivity than in the old days of Henry Ford and Andrew Carnegie.

America’s manufacturing base reflects a great strength in developing:

-high-value products

-for high-stakes industries and applications. 

This is the growth in coming years and it rests on the backs of our various education infrastructures.  Other crucial elements of in the United States’ current dominance in high-quality manufacturing include efficient quality control in supply chains, strong intellectual capital and the highly skilled workforce built by teachers and educators.

A few years back Alan Greenspan, Fed Chairman said “Ideas are becoming increasingly the predominant means by which we create wealth.” 

Truth is, we are still the intellectual property leader on the globe and this is reflected in our position as the leading-edge manufacturing force in the world.  And we need highly skilled, well educated people to create, market and … yes … manufacture these great products.

Other factors will encourage our manufacturing dominance such as rising energy costs, an increasingly “green” outlook on manufacturing around the world and our own massive consumer needs.

Kids today need to be inspired and stimulated to dream, think and produce new ideas, services, products and contributions in this era of rapid change. Curriculum integration using the latest tools to integrate media and the internet through interaction and social media are key to advancing ideas and developing 21rst Century skills.

Lead the way, educators and teachers!  You are vitally important.  You influence the future of our nation and the world.