A Minute With Matt: What’s Happening to Manufacturing Jobs? (Text Version)

This is the text version of the video A Minute With Matt: What’s Happening to Manufacturing Jobs?

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[Text on screen: A Minute With Matt] 

[Text on screen: What’s Happening to Manufacturing Jobs?] 

>>Matt Ringer, Laboratory Program Manager, Advanced Manufacturing, National Renewable Energy Laboratory: You know, manufacturing jobs don’t always have to be dirty and having to wear protective gear, like they do when they grind wind turbine blades because of the particles. It can be where you’re actually working at a station, controlling a robot that does that stuff. We’re not losing jobs. We’re just changing the jobs.

Let’s say that we can automate parts of the wind turbine manufacturing process. Maybe we can grind with a robotic grinder. Or we can cut off the glue line that remains after the two clam shells are put together. Maybe we can do that autonomously. Well, instead of somebody actually operating a grinder, I need someone who can control that robot.

Without a stable workforce, none of the innovation that we are doing will make an impact. It’s just the way it is. You have to transition people from what they’ve known to what they will be doing. It’s different.

And when we look at these jobs that are coming, how do we make sure that they’re diverse, that we’re including everybody?

We are helping when it comes to diversity, when it comes to consideration of energy justice, when it comes to different types of skill sets and people from different backgrounds with different expertise sets. We’re trying to work together to bring them together to, in the end, improve the manufacturing industry, reduce carbon, improve the efficiency, and really look at things in a whole new way.

[Text on screen: Find a job at NREL. Visit nrel.gov/manufacturing/work-with-us.html to browse open positions.]

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