Like many people his age, Washington State Community College student Caleb McCurdy spent some of his summer working part-time. Unlike most people, his job involved building a 3D printer to satisfy your sweet tooth.
McCurdy is an intern with the Appalachian Ohio Manufacturer’s Coalition (AOMC). He just completed a two-year project: a table top machine that can melt and “print” chocolate by slowly building up small, thin stripes into any desired shape.
To build it, he learned how to use professional design software, code and machine parts.
“I had just graduated high school, took carpentry at the Career Center, and decided I wanted to switch to electrical engineering. So I kind of self taught myself everything for this,” McCurdy said.
The AOMC helps high school and college students develop projects to practice real-world STEM skills like coding, engineering and design. The goal is to address the region’s manufacturing labor shortage.
McCurdy’s project has already earned him some work as a student.
“Now I go around to all the schools in the county and help them with fixing their 3D printers,” he said. “Even over in West Virginia, there's one school that I go to every once in a while to fix theirs.”
He’s one of several interns that work with AOMC President Linn Yost at his machining facility in Vincent. Yost owns a small manufacturing company in Washington County specializing in precise, machined parts, primarily for aerospace, defense and life sciences companies around the country. He helped found the AOMC after experiencing difficulties with hiring skilled employees.
“Companies are realizing that we can't find a workforce, they can't find a place to get them trained. They're noticing we've got to change,” he said.
Washington County is a growing hub for manufacturing, and has the highest density of manufacturing companies in the southeastern part of the state. According to the Ohio Bureau of Labor Market Information, the manufacturing industry currently provides nearly 688,000 jobs statewide, and that number is expected to grow–if employers like Yost can find the workers.
Manufacturing and other sectors face workforce shortages
Last year, nearly 60% of manufacturers in the National Association of Manufacturers cited attracting employees as a top challenge. The industry was hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic, and it’s struggled to recover its workforce since then.
The reasons for this slow recovery are complex.
A 2022 report from the state Chamber of Commerce found Ohio was one of several states that lost some of its population during the pandemic, and continues to lose 12.2% of its college graduates to markets in other states.
Many baby boomers are also retiring, leading to a loss of skilled employees with decades of experience.
In southeast Ohio, a lack of educational programs equipped to provide specialized training workers need adds to the problem.
Yost says a lack of exposure to the manufacturing industry is another huge factor.
“I can run an advertisement out there. I'm hiring CNC machinists. Nobody responds because they don't even know what a machinist is,” he said.
Manufacturing isn’t the only industry in the region in need of more workers. Appalachia’s workforce participation has long fallen behind the national average, and sectors like healthcare and education continue to see shortages.
This is in part the result of what researchers describe as decades of exploitation of coal and other natural resources in the region. When these industries declined, they left behind an undiversified economy.
Structural barriers specific to the region also make it difficult to access employment, like a lack of transportation, or access to child care.
Local nonprofits work toward solutions
At Hocking-Athens-Perry County Community Action, summer employment programs help youth in southeast Ohio overcome these challenges and enter the workforce, often for the first time.
Employment Service Coordinators Scott Fisher and Jace Jackson said a key element of their work is case management, which includes helping kids through any obstacles they might encounter.
“If they need work clothes, or specific tools for a work site, we can pay for stuff like that,” Fisher said. “Our main action is placing people at work sites so they can get some experience.”
Through HAPCAP’s employment programs, students participate in a variety of job experiences, from trail maintenance to healthcare. Jackson said that for many students, getting that first job leads to long-term opportunities.
“If our youth do well in the summer, they find positions for them,” she said. “I have ten students who stayed on last year.”
Jeremy Ward, network director of nonprofit Building Bridges to Careers, said experiential learning is key to developing the region’s workforce. Young people need opportunities to learn outside the classroom, whether it's a part time job or internship.
“What we found is students are most impacted not by their peers, not by their parents, but by experiences,” Ward said. “Our longitudinal data from the past 13 years, it's pretty consistent in that fact…the highest impact that students point to in choosing their path has been the experiences they have.”
Building Bridges to Careers is a Washington County-based organization that operates as a facilitator, connecting businesses, schools, educators and youth to career exploration opportunities.
Ward said connecting students to opportunities is important, but that career preparation begins with exposure. Like Yost, he believes students need to better understand all the career paths available before they can decide what to pursue.
“We have an exposure gap,” Ward said. “On student day, their interest still shows that they are interested in what they're most exposed to…so we try to be a little more intentional whenever possible, to align student data with economic development data that is specific to the area that the students and the businesses are in.”
The region is moving in the right direction
Yost spends a lot of his time working to address this exposure gap, educating both youth and teachers about STEM. The back of his manufacturing facility in Vinton is home to a make-shift classroom, filled with dozens of small machines and projects from former students.
They’re a powerful tool for showing kids what’s possible. One of his most popular entryways for engaging with students is his thermoforming machine, which softens and shapes plastic into everything from food packaging to Halloween masks.
“The kids pull the handle, they push the button, and they get this smile across their face that goes ear to ear,” he said. “It's like, ‘Oh my God, look what I just made.’”
Labor force participation in Appalachian Ohio is starting to move in the right direction, according to data from the Appalachian Regional Commission. From 2019-2023, participation was 1.2 percentage points higher than in 2014-2018, matching national growth.
Ward said that progress comes down to making the most of local economies, rather than focusing on what isn’t there.
“We don't want to rely on a deficit mindset. We don't want to think about all the opportunities that our kids don't have in Appalachia,” Ward said. “We want to focus on the assets and the resources that do exist, and how do we take those and leverage partnerships to maximize opportunities based on what we have, instead of what we don't.”
