Bootcamps have become synonymous with short-term tech training.
Their rapid rise, equally swift reality check, and resurgence amid the pandemic have been widely chronicled. Bootcamps haven’t quite reached MOOC status in the popular imagination, but are arguably a household name. A nationally representative survey this past fall found that three-quarters of American adults and nine in 10 business leaders had heard of tech bootcamps.
Pandemic-era worker shortages have been pegged to mass resignations, but the manufacturing sector’s current talent and expertise gap has earlier antecedents.
Decades of labor cost reductions — through hiring caps, lower or stagnant wages, and anemic investment in technology and training — is coming back to bite the industry, according to experts who spoke at the recent 2022 MIT Manufacturing Conference.
Compared to other industries, the share of open job positions as a percentage of overall manufacturing jobs has continued to rise well beyond the impact of ongoing resignations sparked by the pandemic.