Building the Workforce Manufacturing Deserves: Why Apprenticeship Programs Are the Most Powerful Investment We're Not Making Enough Of
By Pauline Langemann | Director of Business Development | Automotive & Advanced Manufacturing
We talk endlessly about the manufacturing skills gap. We publish reports about it. We commission studies. We express concern at industry conferences.
And then we go back to hiring the same profiles, from the same pipelines, in the same ways.
There is a better path. It runs directly through our community colleges. And it starts with apprenticeships.
The gap is real — and growing
Advanced manufacturing is changing faster than most workforce pipelines can keep up with. Automation, robotics, data analytics, precision engineering — the skills required on a modern factory floor look very different from what they did ten years ago, and they will look different again in ten more.
Meanwhile, the talent shortage is not a future problem. It is a present one. Manufacturers across North America are turning down contracts, slowing expansion, and watching institutional knowledge walk out the door as experienced workers retire — with no one ready to replace them.
We cannot solve a structural problem with tactical hiring. We need to build pipelines, not just fill positions.
Why community colleges are the right partner
I've had the privilege of engaging with the Charlotte regional business community through my work at BHS Corrugated North America and through my role with the European American Chamber of Commerce. One thing I've seen consistently: community colleges are among the most responsive, most mission-aligned, and most underutilized partners available to manufacturers.
They are already embedded in the communities we operate in. They serve students who reflect the full demographic range of those communities — including people who cannot afford a four-year university, who are returning to the workforce after a career gap, who are changing industries mid-life, or who simply learn better by doing than by sitting in a lecture hall.
That last point matters more than we often acknowledge. Apprenticeship is not a consolation prize for people who didn't go to university. For many roles in advanced manufacturing, it is genuinely the superior training model. You learn precision machining by doing precision machining. You develop process discipline by working inside a real process, with real consequences, alongside experienced colleagues.
Community colleges understand this. Many are actively looking for industry partners willing to co-design curriculum, offer paid placement, and commit to hiring. The question is whether manufacturers will show up.
The demographic imperative
I want to be direct about something that doesn't always get said plainly in manufacturing circles.
Our industry has a representation problem. Women make up roughly 30% of the manufacturing workforce — and far less in technical and leadership roles. Racial and ethnic minorities remain significantly underrepresented in skilled trades and engineering positions. Workers from lower-income backgrounds face structural barriers to entry that have nothing to do with their capability or potential.
Apprenticeship programs, when designed intentionally, address all of these gaps simultaneously.
They remove the financial barrier — apprentices earn while they learn, which makes participation possible for people who cannot afford to be students for two or four years. They create structured pathways into industries that have historically relied on informal networks for recruitment — networks that, by definition, reproduce existing demographics. And they signal clearly, to communities that have often felt excluded from manufacturing's prosperity, that there is a place for them here.
This is not charity. It is strategy. The manufacturers who build diverse, skilled workforces from their local communities will have more resilient operations, stronger community relationships, and a deeper talent pipeline than those who continue fishing in the same narrow pool.
What a real partnership looks like
I've seen apprenticeship partnerships done well and done poorly. The difference almost always comes down to commitment and co-design.
Done poorly, it looks like this: a manufacturer signs an MOU with a local college, sends a representative to one orientation event, and waits for candidates to appear. When the first cohort doesn't produce ten perfect hires, the program quietly fades.
Done well, it looks very different. Industry and college sit down together — before a single student is enrolled — and answer hard questions. What skills do we actually need, not in theory but on the floor, right now? What does a 12-month learning arc look like that builds those skills progressively? What support do apprentices need to succeed — not just technically, but in terms of mentorship, scheduling flexibility, and transition into full employment?
The manufacturers I most respect in this space treat apprenticeship program design the same way they treat product development: with structured problem-solving, clear KPIs, iterative improvement, and genuine investment.
The business case is not complicated
If you need a financial argument — and sometimes we do — here it is.
The cost of a structured apprenticeship program, including the coordination time, the wage subsidy during training, and the curriculum partnership investment, is almost always less than the cost of a bad hire, a long vacancy, or a retained search for a mid-level technical role.
And the return extends beyond the individual hire. Companies known for investing in local workforce development attract better candidates across all levels. They earn goodwill with local governments and economic development organizations that translates into real business advantages. They build the kind of community presence that makes recruiting, permitting, and partnership easier over time.
In Charlotte, I've seen firsthand how companies that show up for the community — genuinely, not performatively — are rewarded with the kind of relationships and access that money cannot simply buy.
A call to action for manufacturers
If you lead a manufacturing organization, here is what I'd ask you to consider this quarter:
Pick up the phone and call your nearest community college's workforce development office. Tell them what skills you need, what your hiring timeline looks like, and that you are open to exploring a partnership. You will almost certainly find a receptive audience.
If you already have an apprenticeship program, ask yourself honestly: who is it reaching? Is it accessible to people without prior industry connections? Does it reflect the demographics of your local community? If not, what would it take to redesign it so it does?
And if you are in a position to advocate — with your industry association, your chamber of commerce, your local economic development board — make the case that apprenticeship investment is infrastructure. It deserves the same strategic attention and long-term commitment we give to capital equipment and market expansion.
The workforce we build is the industry we become
Manufacturing's future depends on its ability to attract, develop, and retain talent from every corner of the communities it operates in. Apprenticeship programs, built in genuine partnership with community colleges, are one of the most direct and effective tools we have to make that happen.
The skills gap will not close itself. The demographic barriers will not dissolve on their own. But with intentional investment, real partnerships, and a genuine commitment to access and inclusion, we can build a workforce that is not only skilled enough for the future of manufacturing — but representative of the full potential of the communities we call home.
That is the manufacturing industry I want to be part of building.
I champion apprenticeship programs and workforce development initiatives as part of my work at BHS Corrugated North America and through the European American Chamber of Commerce. If you are a manufacturer, educator, or community leader working on this — I'd love to connect and compare notes.
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