Ann Franz, executive director of the Northeast Wisconsin Manufacturing Alliance, says her organization’s Industry 4.0 Needs, Skills & Talent Survey plays a key role in her decision-making about NEWMA programming.
For example, after a strong need was identified in the survey in 2019, NEWMA began offering its members free data analytics training that was pursued by 234 people — with 48 going on to pursue college credits in the discipline from Northeast Wisconsin Technical College.
When the survey asked the same questions about skills and training two years later, “project management” came out on top, ranking first for in-house reskilling/upskilling needs, third for opportunities to partner with colleges and universities, and first for new hires. So NEWMA and its partners at Microsoft set out to create a project management training program for 2022.
“I was hoping for 30 people to register,” Franz admits. “Right away I had over 150 and I said, ‘Oh, I can’t do that; I’ll do another cohort.’ Then we had another 100 register. I literally had people begging me to get in.”
For NEWMA to receive an even bigger response to project management than to its wildly popular data analytics class was surprising, Franz says, “but also not surprising.” For her own part, Franz says she has been listing “take a project management course” as a professional development goal on her annual performance review for 15 years and just hasn’t made the time to do it.
“Many people do project management, but it’s not in your job title and many times it’s not even in the job description,” Franz says, adding that the training was designed specifically for those workers who, like her, fall into that large and somewhat nebulous category.
“One of the big takeaways I heard from the class was, ‘Oh, you’re not supposed to pad a budget? It’s supposed to be realistic?’” Franz says, adding that the course’s major emphasis areas were how to prepare for project risks, manage stakeholders, create a schedule management plan and strategize on project approach.
The courses are a blend of LinkedIn Learning online training and presentations from subject-matter experts that are unique to the NEWMA member audience. The LinkedIn Learning sessions can be completed on the students’ own time, and the content experts offer weekly complementary presentations at two different times.
“Trying to find a time that works for 100 people is really tough,” Franz says. “But we’re getting almost everybody between those two calls, which shows the value of what they’re hearing. And they keep on coming back each week.”
Franz says 100% of participants who completed a post-training survey found the content informative, and 75% said they are interested in continuing their project management education. The addition of a capstone project to each NEWMA training, she adds, makes students even more accountable for and invested in what they’re learning.
“You know going in, ‘I’d better do something with this,’ and I think our companies are finding that investment of time worth it because they’re really seeing outcomes from that,” Franz says.
An example from NEWMA’s data analytics course proves the point. A student’s company was equipped with Power BI technology, Franz says, but the student didn’t know how to use it. Therefore, it took him an average of 8-12 hours each month to put together reports.
“Now it takes him 45 minutes,” she says. “Although the training was 28 hours, in 2 ½ months he’s already made back that time.”
Franz says NEWMA plans to offer additional cohorts of both its data analytics and project management training again in the coming months. Meanwhile, a third training opportunity is in the works and should be available by fall. The newest course will follow a similar format and focus on everyday workforce considerations around cybersecurity, which is also a piping hot topic among the NEWMA membership.
“By this time next year, I’m confident that we will have trained over 1,000 people,” Franz says.
But NEWMA’s history of training and education predates even that first data analytics course.
“Over the years, we have done many incumbent worker trainings — from upskilling operators to have more mechanical aptitude and troubleshooting skills to creating programs for frontline workers to [develop things like] teamwork, critical thinking skills and emotional intelligence,” Franz says. “It has always been a pillar, but I think a lot of our past training was really focused around production workers. Now this is looking more at the office worker.”
Franz says the newest trainings are designed to support manufacturing workers like engineers, supply chain managers and human resources officers. As NEWMA’s longtime leader, Franz says she is tuned in to the pain points of the region’s manufacturing executives. They’re so busy making things and “putting out fires,” she says, that they don’t have time to create professional development opportunities for their workers, no matter how much they are wanted by the next-generation workforce or necessitated by the labor shortage. That’s where NEWMA comes in.
“Our vision is that every Northeast Wisconsin manufacturer will find the talent it needs … and for the talent it has to find the talent it needs,” Franz says. “And so of course we have a strategy of recruitment, but we have to have a strategy of retention.”
