Max Inks attended Pennsylvania State University for three years before he dropped out, a decision prompted by his underwhelming performance in classes toward an electrical engineering degree.
He transferred to the Westmoreland County Community College, where he started taking courses in robotics and electronics. One day, a professor sent him on a tour of a 3-D printing manufacturing facility.
“I think this was a God-given gift for me to find this, and it’s literally in my backyard,” Inks said from the workshop of The ExOne Company in North Huntingdon, Pa., where he was hired four months after graduation. “No one outside of the industry truly knows that we exist in Pennsylvania, let alone the fact that we can print in stainless steel.”
Without realizing it, Inks, now 24, fell into an occupational sweet spot, one that he said he would have never known about but for his school setback and serendipity.
The Allegheny Conference on Community Development estimates that the working-age population in the region is composed of 144,000 more people aged 45 to 65, mostly Baby Boomers, than people ages 25 to 45 (the Gen X-ers and Millennials).
As Boomers retire over the next 20 years, the region's industries will need replacements for those who are currently working.
In some industries, such as advanced manufacturing -- which currently has one of the region's oldest workforces with more than half of employees in their 50s -- the gap is even larger.
For the industry to remain competitive, employers and recruiters in the field will need to step up awareness and curb appeal to attract Millennials who can fill the predicted “job gap” left by the Baby Boomers.
Read more of this report at the website of our partner PublicSource.
