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It struck him that the common thread was unemployment. other estimated 2.7 million positions, which will both deepen

Former military who failed to land a job could quickly lose the shortfall and wipe out decades of knowledge unless some- their homes, their families and in short order, their con? dence thing is done to make sure it gets passed on. and sense of self-worth. Once that was gone, it wouldn’t “If we do not prepare a generation of people who can do be long before the bottom fell out. That’s because among what needs to be done and train others to do that, America is

Hernán’s students, 68% receive disability bene? ts, 60% are in peril. This [retirement bubble] is the perfect opportunity to unemployed or underemployed and 26% are in temporary/in- get the million-plus veterans expected to transition over the secure housing situations. next ? ve years and get them certi? ed and trained in advanced manufacturing,” urges Luis y Prado. “Vet 2.0 – The next great-

Critical Labor Shortage est generation!”

Luis y Prado, who trained as an engineer, came to realize “The reality is we need the next generation of skilled crafts- that there was – and remains – a critical nationwide shortage of men to come in. Usually 70%- to 90% of the new guys are workers with advanced manufacturing skills. As many as 2.3 completely green. Workshop for Warriors is a good thing. million vacancies out of the 3.5 million jobs that will need to [Their graduates] are already ahead of the majority of folks be ? lled over the next 10 years, according to multiple industry going for similar jobs,” says Matthew Paxton, president, Ship- and research sources. “We kept seeing older and older people builders Council of America. building and repairing ships and maintaining equipment and Coincidentally, veterans who held welding, machinist and saw this was not sustainable.” Among U.S. shipbuilders, for fabrication jobs in the military found they lacked the ticket to example, welders and fabricators are in especially short supply. civilian employment: nationally-recognized credentials. For

Another brewing problem is that the average age of the cur- those veterans whose skills lay in other areas, getting creden- rent manufacturing workforce runs around 59 to 63, which tialed would be a quicker path to a well-paying job than four- means at the very moment when American manufacturing is or even two years of debt-inducing college study leading to resurging, it faces a huge retirement bubble opening up an- uncertain employment.

Images above: WFW students in training www.maritimelogisticsprofessional.com 45I 34-49 Q3 MP2016.indd 45 8/17/2016 10:40:31 AM