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26 MoldMaking Technology —— JANUARY 2016 PELLET TO Images courtesy of the Great Promise Partnership. "This is the generation that will lead America to the next level of greatness. This is our promise to these students: If they stay in school and work to get ahead, they will have a piece of the American dream, that success formula that has made this country great." —Great Promise Partnership President and CEO Mike Beatty By Rich Oles Typically, "they" refers to any employee joining the moldmak- ing and plastic injection molding workforce with or without the necessary experience, education or skills. In the plastics industry, this includes process engineers; program managers; moldmakers; apprentices; operators; material handlers; sup- port staff; and logistics, quality control and IT personnel. A job in manufacturing comes with some basic requirements including a high school diploma or GED, passing random drug screenings, and maintaining reliable transportation to and from work. To most, these aren't major challenges, but to many others they are. At the other end of the spectrum, there is a real need for a highly skilled and educated manufacturing workforce, and this need will only increase as manufacturing technologies advance. Putting a sign in the front yard, run- ning a help wanted ad in the local paper, and using online job posting boards, recruiters and word of mouth can be pro- ductive, but these strategies are not meeting the current pace. During an "up" economy, the demand for candidates with experience, soft skills and work ethic to fill these positions is high, but traditional resources for reaching and securing such candidates are not adequate. Let's take a look at the where and how of finding, employing, training and retaining these people as valued employees with some creative, nontradi- tional suggestions for securing a reliable workforce. Ask Yourself Where will you find your next employee? Once you employ him or her, how will you educate, mentor, retain and grow that person in your organization with the intent of employing him or her over a longer period of time? Then ask yourself, "Why can't I be the next great person in the plastics industry? Why can't I employ change?" Where Will They Come From? In 2015, the Pellet to Part series focused on providing a better understanding of the plastics molding process by reviewing the physics behind how a plastic pellet becomes an injection-molded part. This year, the series will suggest unique ways to transfer technology to the current talent pool and examine where we might find the next generation of moldmakers and molders. Organizations that invest time and effort in high school kids, instill a sense of self-worth, give real-world work experience, teach what being a good employee means, and provide encouragement for continuing education bring the change this industry needs to create the next-generation workforce. What will you do? I personally have grown tired of rhetoric like "We can't do that" or "Yeah, but they have low-cost labor, and their govern- ment subsidizes steel." What I want to hear is, "How can we do that?" We can by developing innovative high school programs, accredited state and federal apprenticeship programs, formal college plastics programs, and in-house training/mentoring programs. There are people and programs that use nontradi- tional means to attract and retain next-generation workers, including David Cieslica, the president and managing direc- tor of HotSet America in Swainsboro, Georgia. He is working with the Great Promise Partnership (GPP), which aims to use education to help break the cycle of poverty. As a 501(c)(3) organization, GPP is affiliated with the Georgia Department of