SOUTH PLAINFIELD, N.J.,
Oct. 4, 2019 /PRNewswire/
-- Lincoln Educational Services Corporation (NASDAQ: LINC), a
national leader in specialized technical training, brought together
government officials and hiring managers from across the state on
Friday, September 27th for
its first New Jersey Skills Gap Summit. The event was held at
Lincoln Tech's South Plainfield campus, and focused on
solutions to the challenges hiring managers face when filling open
positions on their teams.
More than 50 employers - representing the auto, diesel, heavy
equipment, transport refrigeration, HVAC, electrical, manufacturing
and welding industries – attended the summit, speaking about the
impact the skills gap is having on their businesses. With a
lack of workforce candidates who possess the skills demanded by
their particular industries, hiring managers came ready to discuss
solutions to be found in the training and academic arena.
Lincoln Tech representatives from the
Mahwah, South Plainfield, and Union campuses provided
details on their hands-on training programs, which are developing
and graduating hundreds of skilled professionals each year to meet
the state's hiring needs.
"We look to [assess] the needs of employers around the state,
and then we work to fill those needs with our programs and with our
students," said Scott Shaw,
Lincoln Tech's President and CEO.
Shaw cited employers such as BMW, Fiat Chrysler, Hussmann, Johnson
Controls International and others who have partnered with
Lincoln Tech's New Jersey campuses in an effort to build
their workforces.
"Students come to Lincoln Tech to
get a job," Shaw added, "And we are there to help them get that job
as quickly as possible. [The skills gap] is significant and
it is not going away any time soon."
New Jersey government officials
were also on hand, including Nicholas Toth, Assistant
Director of the newly-created Office of Apprenticeship at the New
Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce Development and State
Assemblyman Robert
Karabinchak.
Karabinchak serves as Deputy Majority Whip in the State
Legislature, and as Vice-Chair of both the Assembly Higher
Education Committee and the Assembly Commerce and Economic
Development Committee. He represents New Jersey's 18th district that includes
South Plainfield, and also runs a
general contracting company. As a hiring manager himself, he
was able to speak to the challenges faced by today's employers –
and to the benefits waiting for students who graduate from hands-on
career training.
"Companies like ours have a hard time finding skilled
craftsmen," he said. "Almost every contractor I talk to can't
find [trades] people. If you're a technician, or if you're
going into the skilled trades, [the demand] makes the starting
salaries in many cases better than those for people coming out of
four year colleges."
Assistant Director Toth spoke to the current state of
New Jersey's labor force, and to
the opportunities for developing a better trained, better skilled
pool of candidates for the positions that exist today. He also
outlined his office's program for Growing Apprenticeship in
Non-Traditional Sectors (GAINS).
"What you're doing right now is going to become such an
important part of your future," Toth told students in
attendance. "You couldn't be doing it at a better time.
The reality is that there is a huge job shortage for auto and
diesel technicians and [many of the] skilled trades. That's
why we're here. It's important that we think about where the
state's workforce is today."
According to the U.S. Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor
Statistics, New Jersey is
projected to need almost 75,000 skilled professionals by 2026* in
fields for which Lincoln Tech's
New Jersey campuses offer
training. The 2017 Integrated Postsecondary Education Data
System survey ranked Lincoln Tech
schools as graduating more automotive, computerized manufacturing,
HVAC, and electrical/electronics candidates than any other school
in the state.
About Lincoln Educational Services Corporation
Lincoln Educational Services Corporation is a leading provider
of diversified career-oriented post-secondary education.
Lincoln offers recent high school
graduates and working adults career-oriented programs in five
principal areas of study: automotive technology, health sciences,
skilled trades, business and information technology, and
hospitality services. Lincoln has
provided the workforce with skilled technicians since its inception
in 1946.
Lincoln currently operates 22
campuses in 14 states under four brands: Lincoln Technical Institute, Lincoln College of Technology and Euphoria
Institute of Beauty Arts and Sciences. Lincoln also operates Lincoln Culinary Institutes
in both Maryland and Connecticut.
For more information, go to lincolntech.edu.
Contact Information
Lincoln Educational Services
Corporation
Peter Tahinos
(973) 736-9340 x49233
ptahinos@lincolntech.edu
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SOURCE Lincoln Educational Services Corporation