LITTLE VILLAGE — In August, Enrique and Cesar Caldero knew next to nothing about manufacturing. By the end of September, they were using heavy machinery to build a pully system capable of lowering crates through warehouse roofs.
The brothers, 24 and 19, respectively, were two of dozens of students showing off their skills recently at the Arturo Velasquez Insitute, 2800 S. Western Ave., a satellite campus for Richard J. Daley College. The school had invited classes from three CPS high schools to watch manufacturing students in action on the campus's workshop floor.
As part of the tour, students watched a robotic arm blast sparks at steel hinges, and even got to try their own hand at welding on a virtual machinery system.
The event was part of a burgeoning joint campaign between Daley College and the Illinois Manufacturing Association to sell more students on careers in manufacturing, a field that's flagged in popularity and seen an insatiable demand for new workers in recent years.
"We're talking about a really critical sector of the economy here, and people just aren't aware of how many manufacturers across the state have jobs that need to be filled right now," said Ray Prendergast, the dean of Daley College's manufacturing program. "We have about 60 manufacturers right now partnering with us to try to get the word out, to try to get more students interested in building things."
So far, Prendergast said, the effort has paid off. In 2010, 26 students were enrolled in one of Daley's 10 manufacturing certificate programs. This year, 144 aspiring builders are enrolled.
But if the state wants to fill an expanding vacuum of factory labor, programs like Daley's may have a long way to go.
"Every year in Ilinois we need to replace about 26,000 production workers — that's people working on shop floors, making phones or candy bars or airplanes — and it's become a huge challenge to recruit enough workers to fill those jobs" said Jim Nelson, executive director of the Illinois Manufacturing Association's education foundation. "After WWII the mantra was to send everyone through college and push them into these kinds of jobs, but somehow since then they've been deemed to be less desirable."
As part of an ongoing effort to reverse that trend, the Illinois Manufacturing Association last month donated $25,000 to Daley College for student scholarships, hoping to lure students into college at next-to-nothing costs with big potential payoffs down the road.
Selling students on manufacturing careers, Nelson said, doesn't just mean making courses cheaper, or fighting the stereotype that factory floors are "dirty, dank and dark." Advertising becomes a lot easier, he said, at the first mention of salaries.
According to the U.S. Department of Commerce, manufacturing jobs pay an average of more than $78,000 per year, up to 32 percent higher than other industries.
Plus, in contrast to other upper-income careers, students can qualify for most entry-level craftsman positions without more than a two-year associate's degree from a community college.
"You can earn a certificate in welding or machining by taking just two courses, and that will set you up for a $12-an-hour job, with the opportunity to move up to a $30-an-hour job," Prendergast said. Students who take six-course or 12-course certificates, he said, set them up for even more lucrative careers.
The jobs aren't hard to find, either. Every single graduate of Daley's manufacturing program had a full-time position waiting for them by the time they were certified, according to Prendergast.
For Cesar Caldero, enrolling in the program was an easy choice.
"I've never been much of a bookworm, and this program is it's just so hands-on, like you're always doing stuff instead of sitting listening to lectures," said Caldero, who hopes to study engineering at the Illinois Institute of Technology after earning his associate's degree from Daley College. "There's never a boring moment here, and I'm setting myself up to make good money. It's pretty awesome."
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