Manufacturing expo brings employers, US cabinet members to Broward school

The US Small Business Administration (SBA) hosted its first ever manufacturing workforce expo at Atlantic Technical College in Coconut Creek. Co-hosted with the Department of Labor (DOL) and Open AI, the event brought students together with employers, apprenticeship and workforce resources.

Acting Department of Labor Secretary Keith Sonderling and head of the Small Business Administration Kelly Loeffler both attended and toured the school’s HVAC repair, machining technology and welding facilities.

“The  students we met today are the workforce of the future, particularly as we go into advanced manufacturing, where we need those skilled trades that students are learning right now,” said Loeffler.

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Sonderling said the event was an opportunity to promote the DOL’s registered apprenticeship program. He says students who take advantage are into the labor force faster, can “earn while they learn” and avoid debt that can come with a traditional college education.

“ We get these workers right when they're 18 into the job, a high-skill high-paying job, with zero debt. For the first time having the employer completely train and control the curriculum — they're the ones who are employing them, they're the ones who need these jobs, and we can't have that delay of the mismatch of going to school, getting a degree, and then having to start over with debt when you start on day one, we're flipping that model,” he said.

Carlton Gillespie

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WLRN

Employers set up booths in an exhibit hall where students came to ask about job opportunities. That includes Jonny Cano, an operations manager from Hanwha Power, a company that manufactures turbines. He said he was looking to fill entry level positions based in Jupiter and came away impressed with the students.

“ They've been great, they're engaged. We're looking for a good attitude and a little bit of skill, and we can train everything else,” he said.

Miguel Valencia, a student in ATC’s machining technologies program, showed Loeffler and Sonderling around the machine shop. He said the exposure to employers was a big part of the success of the event.

“We can network with them and tell them, ‘Look, the, we're doing this. This is what we're planning.’ These are the doors that are being opened for us. It's a great opportunity, honestly,” he said.

The event also touted AI’s use in the future of small business. Open AI was a co-sponsor of the event. That comes as some economists have sounded alarms at its negative impact on the workforce. Joseph Briggs, who leads the global economics team at Goldman Sachs Research, said in a recent podcast appearance that he expects 9% of the US workforce to be displaced due to AI. That’s roughly 15 million jobs.

Loeffler downplayed those fears, saying instead that AI is a tool that will help small business in the future — not replace them.

“ Just like the internet revolution made jobs higher skilled and more jobs available, we see that same phenomenon happening now," she said.

"OpenAI is just an example of a company that is a tool for small businesses to use to empower them to grow. That's why we have seven and a half million jobs open in this country right now, half a million of them in manufacturing. There are more jobs available than we can fill in this nation, and that's in a post-AI world."