Around 90 people from universities, corporations and government bodies throughout Mississippi and beyond gathered at the Mississippi State University Franklin Furniture Institute Wednesday to discuss the future of manufacturing in the U.S. and Mississippi.
Addresses were given on topics including millennials in the workplace, apprenticeships, career awareness and federal regulations. This was the seventh annual manufacturing summit held at MSU.
“One of the things we’re finding in the manufacturing sector is the lack of skills to take advantage or to fill the jobs that they’re having,” said Franklin Furniture Institute Director Bill Martin. “What we did today is bring a group of people who can help solve the problem to get the skill sets ready for the influx of jobs that we’re looking for.”
Martin said more jobs were likely to come back to the U.S. due to favorable policy from the current presidential administration and increasing costs of manufacturing overseas.
“The theme was, ‘are we as Mississippi USA ready to bring those jobs back to the skillset?’” Martin said.
Martin added that institutions, particularly community colleges, were setting up to take advantage of the influx by adding high-tech manufacturing programs to their curriculum, sometimes in conjunction with nearby corporations.
“The low-skill jobs are not going to be coming back, but the high-skill jobs are, so with collaboration between the universities, community colleges, industries and the Mississippi Department of Education, we can put together a program to prepare our citizens to take advantage of the opportunities when these jobs do come back,” Martin said.