Manufacturing Offers Multiple Career Paths ...
And in a time when the industry needs a future generation of skilled workers, this survey shows that women are missing great opportunities within manufacturing and manufacturing is missing great opportunities with women.
We have our work cut out for us, but I know we are up for the challenge. I, for one, am working on a recruitment video highlighting careers in moldmaking for the K-12 age group, and one of the stars of the video is a strong, intelligent, dynamic, young woman. I can't wait to share her story in the upcoming weeks. In the meantime, I wanted to share information on this survey that proves young women should not be overlooked for careers in manufacturing.
Here are some findings from Women in Manufacturing, (WiM), a group of nearly 500 women dedicated to attracting, retaining and advancing women in the manufacturing sector, that teamed up with Plante Moran to do the survey.
The survey of more than 870 women (both currently working in manufacturing and young women who are consider career options) shares promising findings for the future of women in the manufacturing sector. Most notable, is that there is significant overlap between the top factors young women are seeking in careers and the factors manufacturing careers offer.
In the survey, young women ranked compensation as the most important factor they are seeking in a career, followed closely by work that is interesting and challenging. At the same time, more than 80% of women in manufacturing today say that their work is interesting and challenging and half of women in manufacturing say that compensation is the most significant benefit of the sector.
The survey also found that 74% of women working in manufacturing believe that the sector offers multiple career paths for women and that more than half of women in manufacturing today think that the sector is a leading industry for job growth for women. In addition, 64% of women working in manufacturing reported that they would recommend a career in manufacturing to a young woman.
But despite these high numbers, young women remain woefully unaware of the opportunities available to them in the manufacturing sector. Less than half of young women believe that manufacturing offers the interesting and challenging work they’re seeking and less than 10% of young women placed manufacturing among the top five career fields that they feel offer the most opportunity for young women today.
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