ERIE, Pa. — A $4.4 million partnership with the Department of Defense and the Institute for Advanced Composites Manufacturing Innovation (IACMI) has expanded metals-based manufacturing programs at Penn State Behrend, including youth programs.
Behrend’s College for Kids, a six-week summer enrichment program for youth ages 6 to 14, now includes a metal-casting course. Students create sand molds, which are used to cast metal objects.
The class is part of a three-year initiative — the Metallurgical Engineering Trades Apprenticeship and Learning program, or METAL — that is designed to address a shortage of skilled labor in the manufacturing sector. Nearly one-fourth of the manufacturing workforce is 55 or older, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. By 2030, more than 2 million manufacturing jobs will be unfilled, according to Manufacturing USA.
That lack of skilled workers is a concern for the Department of Defense, which relies heavily on cast and forged equipment. The department has identified a need for at least 122,000 mission-critical manufacturing personnel by 2028.
“We want to inspire the next generation to pursue careers in metal manufacturing,” said Paul C. Lynch, an associate professor of industrial engineering and a faculty member in the master of manufacturing management degree program at Behrend. He’s leading the METAL program at Penn State. “The ultimate goal is to position the Pennsylvania metals industry to be competitive in both the national and international marketplaces and to keep family-sustaining jobs in the United States, including here in the Erie region.”
The METAL program directly supports Behrend’s Project RESOLVE, a 10-year regional effort to shift the metal manufacturing, plastics and transportation industries to a circular economic model that reduces pollution in and near the region’s freshwater resources, including Lake Erie. A planned Center for Manufacturing Competitiveness will include labs for metal casting and additive manufacturing — an innovation “sandbox” where University researchers and industry partners can test new techniques.