The Skill Up AZGala was built around supporting apprenticeships and scholarships in precision manufacturing, which is exactly the kind of work this sector says it wants more of. It brought together employers, partners, and advocates who believe strong career pathways do not just happen on their own. That part was encouraging. The part that kept bothering me came later: the disconnect between how often manufacturing leaders talk about workforce problems and how rarely they invest in the programs that help solve them. We say we need talent, but too often we stop short of funding the exposure, access, and training required to build it. Stop Calling it a Skills Gap.
Here’s the thing: we keep calling this a skills gap, and every time I hear it, I want to scream out loud and punch something. I said it in my presentation that night, and I still stand by it today. This is not a skills gap, as people keep describing it. It is a gap in awareness, exposure, and access.
Framing
That framing sat at the center of what I shared on stage, and honestly, the more time I spend in this sector, the more convinced I am that the words we choose here matter because they shape whether people feel responsible for fixing the problem at all.
Calling it a skills gap makes it sound like talent is missing, like capable people are simply nowhere to be found.
That is lazy language, and worse, it lets too many companies shrug their shoulders and move on. It turns a solvable issue into an abstract one. There are smart, capable, hardworking people in every community who could thrive in machining, precision manufacturing, automation, and engineering. A lot of them just haven’t been shown the path, haven’t met the right mentor, haven’t seen the inside of a modern facility, and haven’t been told, with any real conviction, that they belong. That is a very different problem, and it requires a very different response.
Exposure Changes Everything
Part of the reason I get so irritated about this is because I was not supposed to end up here either. I did not grow up dreaming or planning a career in manufacturing. Did not come into this sector through an engineering school, apprenticeship program, or family-owned shop. I found it by accident, which is honestly how a lot of people find the work that changes them.
When I was in college, I found out I was pregnant at 19. My life took a turn I hadn’t planned for, so I transferred schools and pursued a career in professional and technical writing. I learned that information only works when people can actually understand it.
One of my early classroom assignments was writing instructions for making a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, and somehow, every single one of us managed to screw it up. It sounds ridiculous, but that exercise taught me something I still carry with me. What feels obvious to one person is not obvious to another, especially when they have not been exposed to the same environment, language, or expectations.
Later, when I got into trade media and started spending time around manufacturers, engineers, and technical teams, I remember feeling like I had been punked. How did I not know these careers existed in the way they actually existed? Why was I never pushed toward this world? Why are so many people still not being shown this path? These questions followed me for years, and I still ask them when I hear people complaining about the pipeline today.
The workforce issues we are facing today don’t always come down to people being unwilling to work. Sometimes it’s because we’ve done a terrible job introducing them to the work in the first place.
What Apprenticeships Actually Solve
This is why I keep coming back to apprenticeships, because I’ve heard every version of the workforce complaint by now. No one wants to work. Younger generations are difficult. Nobody has the right skills. We cannot find qualified people. Some of that frustration is real, but some of it has also become a script people repeat without examining their own role in the problem. It seems to be much easier to complain about the pipeline than to help build one.
Yes, apprenticeships make a nice talking point at a fundraiser, but they also do something our industry desperately needs more of. They create structure where there used to be uncertainty. More importantly, they give people a way to connect effort with opportunity.
I think that is one of the most overlooked parts of this conversation. People want purpose and to understand what they are building and why it matters. They want to see where they fit. If all we do is tell young people or career changers that manufacturing needs workers, but we never show them the environment, the process, the technology, or the possibilities, why would they feel drawn to it? Why would they choose a sector they have barely seen?
Data Points
I used several workforce and apprenticeship data points in my presentation so the room could understand that this is not some soft, feel-good side effort. Apprenticeships raise earnings, improve retention, create opportunity without burying people in debt, and give employers a more stable way to build talent rather than constantly chase it. They also help people earn while they learn, help employers build talent rather than endlessly hunt for it, and help communities strengthen their workforce base rather than hope someone else solves the problem.
What I appreciate about programs like Skill Up is that they do not frame workforce development as a vague aspiration. They frame it as a community responsibility. The organization describes itself as the workforce development arm of the Arizona Tooling and Machining Association, and it works with industry, education, and public workforce systems to shape the future of precision manufacturing.
A Better Example of Workforce Development
One of the most memorable moments of the evening came when Jack Balter and his parents spoke about his experience in the program. Jack has autism and completed one of the AZ Skill Up levels, and their story brought the bigger workforce conversation down to a human level, focusing on what can happen when someone is given a real opportunity and a path that fits.
What stayed with me was how clearly his parents described the difference the program made. The traditional four-year college route was not the right environment for Jack, but the Skill Up program gave him something concrete to work toward. It gave him skills, direction, and something he could feel proud of. Jack’s enthusiasm filled the room, and the audience could feel how much it meant for him to have found a place where he could learn, grow, and talk about what he was doing with genuine confidence.
That is what made this such a strong example of workforce development. Skill Up Arizona is creating pathways for people with ability, interest, and potential who may have been overlooked by more traditional systems, which is exactly what manufacturing needs to build a stronger, more durable pipeline.
For me, Jack’s story was one of the clearest reminders of the night that this sector does not need to keep searching for talent in the same places it always has. We need to get better at recognizing potential, widening access, and building programs that help more people step into work they can grow in and feel proud of.
The Future of Manufacturing
If we’re being honest, the future of manufacturing won’t work if we keep relying on the same narrow recruiting pools and then act surprised when they dry up. It won’t work if we only recognize talent when it looks familiar.
It is not going to work if we complain about labor shortages while ignoring veterans, career changers, neurodiverse individuals, and younger people who have never toured a facility, and adults who are fully capable but have never been invited into the industry.
We cannot keep saying we need people. While refusing to expand our understanding of who those people are and where they are. Arizona makes that urgency harder to ignore because its manufacturing base is expanding fast. Semiconductor investment, aerospace, defense, and advanced production are all creating momentum, but the growth is outpacing the workforce, infrastructure, and support systems needed to sustain it.
Companies will say they are worried about workforce shortages, but some of those same companies are not opening their doors to student groups, building apprenticeship partnerships, or supporting local organizations that are doing the hard work of exposure, recruiting, coaching, and development. They want the finished product without putting anything into the process.
That mindset infuriates me and worries me, because we are moving through a moment where manufacturing strength is tied to a whole lot more than company growth goals or hiring targets.
It is tied to resilience, regional stability, and whether we actually have the people and systems to support industries that matter when the world gets messy; and let’s be honest, the world is real messy right now.
Pretending that this is somebody else’s problem is reckless right now.
The Awareness Gap Is Still the Bigger Story
The thing I keep coming back to is how often perception changes the second someone gets real exposure to manufacturing.
Bring students into a facility or to a trade show and watch what happens. Let them see the equipment, the workflow, the precision, the teamwork, and the technology, and suddenly the old stereotypes start falling apart. The image in their head shifts.
Familiarity builds interest; interest creates motion; and motion creates candidates. I do not think we say that enough. We keep acting like awareness is the soft part of workforce development, as if it sits somewhere below technical training in importance, but awareness is often the first door. If nobody walks through that door, the rest of the conversation never gets off the ground.
This is exactly why organizations like Skill Up Arizona matter. They are doing the connective work and helping make the path visible. They are creating opportunities for people who may not have industry access, the network, or a clear next step. Most importantly, they are creating the right conditions for workforce development to actually happen.
But these types of programs need investment, sponsors, and community leaders willing to show up with money, time, access, and long-term commitment. A gala is great, but a gala alone does not build a durable pipeline. Real participation, funding, and consistency do.
What Manufacturers Should Do Next, Stop Calling it a Skills Gap
After the event, I kept thinking less about my speech and more about responsibility. The kind that requires a decision and then a follow-through. If you are in this sector and care about the future of manufacturing, there should be evidence of that beyond your complaints. Open your floor to one student group this year, or sponsor their transportation to a trade show.
A giant campaign is not required to start changing perception.
Sometimes, one visit is all it takes to plant a seed that sticks with somebody and inspires them to pursue a career in engineering or manufacturing. Have a real conversation offline, too. Tell a neighbor or friend whose kid is trying to figure things out. Reach out to a veteran transitioning out of service. Tell someone who goes to your church or gym. Anyone who knows someone who is smart but stuck and looking for direction.
If there is an organization in your region like Skill Up already doing the work, then support it, fund it. And partner with it. Because this conversation is bigger than how using the term “skills gap” frames it. What is at stake is our economic stability, national identity, and the long-term strength of our country.
Source: Stop Calling it a Skills Gap
https://www.linkedin.com/in/meaghan-ziemba/
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/why-we-need-stop-calling-skills-gap-meaghan-ziemba-vdlec/
https://www.techedmagazine.com/industries/
Stop Calling it a Skills Gap
