Robotics

continues to make promises about adding manufacturing jobs. In blue-collar Youngstown, Ohio, he talked about passing by big factories whose jobs “have left Ohio” on his way to a July 25 rally, then told people not to sell their homes because the jobs are “coming back. They’re all coming back.”

But U.S. Sen. Rob Portman, an Ohio Republican and a former U.S. trade representative, insisted in an interview: “We’re not going to see the kind of manufacturing renaissance that we all want in this country unless we focus on skills training.”

Otherwise, Portman warned, there could be another wave of jobs going offshore.

“Companies will vote with their feet,” he said.

Labor Secretary Alexander Acosta, in a visit to a Detroit factory in June, acknowledged the need to address the “skills gap” by developing advanced computing skills. And when Trump visited Pewaukee, Wisconsin, in June with his secretaries of education and labor and daughter Ivanka, he touted the value of training while doing.

“Apprenticeships teach striving Americans the skills they need to operate incredible machines,” Trump said. “This is not the old days. This is new and computerized and complicated.”

Of the 146 million jobs in the United States, only about 0.35 percent — or slightly more than a halfmillion — were filled by active apprentices in 2016. Filling millions of open jobs through apprenticeships would require a substantial increase in government resources. So far, the Trump administration has called for more funding but hasn’t made any progress securing the funding from Congress.

Apprenticeships are much more common at some European companies, notably German firms. At Germany-based Stihl Inc.’s plant in Virginia Beach, Virginia, for example, A.J. Scherman is learning to be a “mechatronics technician.” Mechatronics combines electrical and mechanical engineering, as well as computer skills.

Stihl makes chain saws, leaf blowers and weed trimmers at the factory. Once he has completed his final year in Stihl’s four-year apprenticeship program, Scherman will read diagnostic software on computer screens attached to each robot to repair and upgrade them. If necessary, he’ll hook up a laptop to program changes.

Scherman, 37 and with only a high-school degree, wanted to earn more money when his daughter was born, so he took a chance with a mid-life career change. Previously, he worked 80-hour weeks putting together special events, including Stihl’s company picnic.

Scherman is also earning a college degree as part of the apprenticeship. Thanks to financial aid from Stihl, he’ll finish with zero debt.

The prospect of increasing automation doesn’t faze him. After all, he’ll be a robot repairman.

“We’re safe, because we’re the guys who fix the robots when they malfunction,” Scherman said. “We’re going to need people to fix the more advanced systems.”

There are assembly lines at the Stihl plant, but human workers are interspersed with computers and robotics. Two robot arms in one corner of the plant tie cords to the black pull handles used to start the company’s outdoor power tools, a mundane job formerly done by people.

Self-driving forklifts with flashing lights and constant beeping sounds, akin to R2D2

from “Star Wars,” navigate around corners and through doors. They are programmed to slow down when people are nearby.

Skip Johnson, Stihl’s apprenticeship coordinator, said the company has succeeded in attracting young people.

The key is getting bright students into the plant, where they see that the grimy, dusty factories they learned about in books and movies are giving way to clean operations using futuristic technology.

“When they actually come here and they see the robots and how they interact and the programming involved, it’s almost like a laser light show,” said Johnson, 56. “They just come in here and they’re wide-eyed.”

The company says it has never laid off a worker because of automation.

“We’re safe, because we’re the guys who fix the robots when they malfunction. We’re going to need people to fix the more advanced systems.”

— A.J. Scherman, who is learning to be a mechatronics technician at Germany-based Stihl Inc.’s plant in Virginia Beach, Virginia