Explore the latest about how manufacturers are: leveraging apprenticeship models to build a skilled workforce; and responding to President Trump’s 2025 Executive Order calling for 1 million new active apprentices annually, highlighting how the employer-driven strategy is shaping talent development in U.S. manufacturing.  

Manufacturers are adopting and integrating AI and need to ensure the workforce is prepared to work collaboratively with AI. Explore how manufacturers and organizations are thinking innovatively about closing this critical skills gap.

Level One – Foundational
Employers can’t sit on the sidelines expecting others to solve the skills gap. Textron Aviation has been strongly investing in workforce and training, culminating in the creation of the company’s new Career & Learning Center (CLC) in 2024. Creating a great employee experience meant revamping inquiry, application, hiring, onboarding, training and support. Discover four zones: Career, Preemployment, Learning, and Design Build Fly. New training gives employees confidence via hands-on and role-specific training, and a simulated manufacturing floor. Inspiring students and educators are available with age-appropriate design, build, fly activities that range from balsa gliders to flying a Cessna Skyhawk simulator, the world’s most popular trainer aircraft. Go on the journey of workforce and training transformation as we share about lessons learned. This session will be insightful for those seeking inspiration on K-12 outreach, recruitment marketing, hiring, training and onboarding.

Level Three – Advanced
This session will focus on strategic discussions regarding the path our FAME chapter took to develop community-based partnerships that are critical to enhancing the image of manufacturing in our community and pipeline development. Toyotetsu Texas will take a deep dive into the return on investment of establishing an industry sector partnership and the benefits of proactively engaging in the workforce development, education, and economic development ecosystem. We will highlight the tangible and intangible returns that member companies have experienced by investing time, talent, and resources into collaborative workforce solutions. We will also showcase how the collective ROI of these partnerships extends beyond individual companies. This session will provide attendees with insights on how aligning workforce development strategies with economic and educational objectives can yield high-impact results not just for companies, but for the community as a whole.

Level Three – Advanced
Manufacturers often struggle with onboarding programs that are too generic or disconnected from the realities of the shop floor. Golden Aluminum‘s session offers a practical approach to designing skills-based onboarding using structured job analysis. By identifying the specific knowledge and skills required in each department, you can create onboarding experiences that are relevant, targeted, and more effective at building job-ready employees. Attendees will learn how to conduct a simple, scalable job analysis to uncover things like responsibilities and process, and use that data to shape onboarding content, hands-on activities, and evaluation. We’ll share a real-world example from a manufacturing facility that redesigned its onboarding process based on job analysis findings—resulting in faster time-to-competency, clearer training expectations, and improved early retention. This session is ideal for those seeking actionable strategies to improve onboarding and align training with workforce needs.

Level Two – Practical
Across the United States, K-12 STEM educators are in high demand and short supply. Shaw Industries and Dalton State College have partnered together to implement a Manufacturing Externship model that is part of the required curriculum for aspiring STEM Teachers. Attend this workshop to learn how you can replicate this model in your community!

Nearly 200,000 skilled veterans enter the civilian job market each year, with valuable yet often underrecognized experience and skills due to a significant gap in how military learning is communicated and documented. The MI’s Manufacturing Readiness Project bridges the gap between military service and manufacturing careers through digital credentialing, translating military skills into a language that resonates with civilian employers and facilitates the employment of veterans in manufacturing.

Level One – Foundational
Manufacturing is experiencing a resurgence in the US, leading to a massive demand for skilled workers. Despite the promising job growth, the industry faces a critical challenge: filling these roles amidst a significant talent shortage driven by Baby Boomer retirements and a widening skills gap. Siemens’ innovative approach to workforce development offers a promising solution to the talent shortage in US manufacturing. By focusing on teachable soft skills and providing comprehensive hands-on training to workers from all backgrounds, Siemens is paving the way for a more resilient and adaptable workforce. This approach has not only boosted retention and performance but is also being scaled nationwide. This presentation will highlight the successes and lessons learned from Siemens’ initiatives, providing valuable insights for other manufacturers facing similar challenges.

Something New Is Brewing… A high-impact, hands-on workshop is coming to the Workforce Summit. Inspired by Brewing Solutions and part of the MI’s reimagined Solutions Center, this facilitated session is designed for those ready to roll up their sleeves and help Manufacture America’s Talent and tackle manufacturing’s most pressing workforce challenges.

Level Two – Practical
Leveraging the talent of your workforce, you can develop an employee-driven skill building program that highlights the individual talents and superpowers of employees. By enabling qualified technicians to create and deliver short, targeted workshops to their peers, you will build a library of real-world learning opportunities for the challenges occurring on the line. Instead of learning being pushed to technicians, we can drive a learning culture that supports capability building created at the front line – where the work happens and is most impacted. McCormick’s employee-driven program is one component of a technician career development program that puts development in the hands of the employee, requires minimal technology for the plant that is not ready or able to invest in technological enhancements in learning, and engages the workforce to own their career while also supporting their peers. This is the breakthrough for gaining buy in and engagement for your learning culture.

Level One – Foundational
This session will explain three of our methods for engaging with students at various strategic age groups exposing them to manufacturing opportunities at Honda. Middle School – We work with local schools and their regional career centers utilizing the Innovators Quest board game to expose younger students to STEM & Manufacturing related careers while using the associated career center students to provide a near to peer atmosphere that simultaneously exposes them to opportunities at their local career center. High School – We work with local high school and career center engineering programs to highlight the engineering spectrum engineering technology through engineering, hands-on through theory and the associated roles to help students make informed decisions about their best educational and career path fit after high school. College – Student cohort creation and execution exposing students not only to careers linked to their declared major but also our company and its culture.

Cancellation and refund requests for the Workforce Summit must be made in writing by October 6, 2025 by contacting [email protected]. A full refund of the conference fee will be applied to cancellations received by that date.

NO REFUNDS will be granted for requests emailed after October 6, 2025. The Manufacturing Institute also regrets that refunds will not be given for no-shows. Substitutions for an individual that cannot attend the event will gladly be accepted.

A transfer of your full registration is permitted prior to the conference by submitting your request to [email protected]. Onsite transfers will not be granted. Only one transfer is permitted per original registrant. The individual submitting the transfer request is responsible for all financial obligations (any balance due) associated with that substitution. Badge sharing, splitting and reprints are strictly prohibited.