I see that Kevin Drum watched the show last night and had the same reaction I did to the segment on manufacturers whining they can’t find enough skilled workers (the “skills gap”).

First, $12 an hour for a manufacturing job is not “paying very, very well,” despite what Alcoa’s CEO says. My last accounting job paid me $13.50 an hour, and that was fifteen years ago.

Second, if you’re unwilling to train people to work on your equipment and demand that some other institution do so, then you’re effectively getting a subsidy, as Kevin says:

If you can’t afford to train workers, but you also can’t afford to pay the wages it takes to attract experienced workers, then by definition that means you aren’t competitive.

I don’t know if Alcoa or the other factory owner expected to come across as worthy of sympathy, but if so, they failed. What they came across as to me is cheap.

Germany has an interesting approach to this called the Dual Vocational Training System (TVET), in which students get their education through age 18 and then undergo a multi-year training program with a private company. The state pays for the continuing education the firm offers; the company pays a small wage. Could it work here? Well, not without a significant change in thought.

“Thus far, the U.S. corporate sector does not see technical and vocational training as one of its key responsibilities,” says Andreas Koenig, Head of Section, Vocational Training & Labour Markets at the Economic Development & Employment Department in Germany. “It is therefore not yet ready to invest in technical and vocational education and training that goes beyond a few weeks of induction or learning on the job.”

As we saw from the two examples above, training is “not my job” as far as those two companies are concerned.