Raising awareness

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This article was published 01/07/2022 (810 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

It’s hardly a secret that the manufacturing sector here in Manitoba and other parts of the country is facing a critical shortage of skilled labourers.

A 2021 survey of 445 companies conducted by the Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters (CME) found 82 per cent of respondents were facing labour shortages and 75 per cent felt the situation had worsened from the previous year. Numbers from Statistics Canada back it up. The agency reported there were 65,900 manufacturing job vacancies across the country in the second quarter of 2021, the highest number of vacancies in the sector since 2015.

In February, the Manitoba chapter of the CME launched a new public awareness and education campaign it hopes will help to address that labour shortage. The Manufacturing is Hiring initiative (cme-mec.ca/manufacturing-is-hiring) is designed to present the manufacturing industry in a more modern light and help individuals connect with careers in the sector that are a good match for their skills and professional goals.

Statistics Canada reported there were 65,900 manufacturing job vacancies across the country in the second quarter of 2021, the highest number of vacancies in the sector since 2015.

“We started to think we needed a fresh way of getting in front of people who maybe haven’t considered manufacturing as a career option previously,” CME Manitoba’s director of workforce development Andrea Aiello says of the impetus behind the campaign.

“We’ve been doing a lot of work for the past three or four years on reaching youth and under-represented groups, but we needed to kick it up a notch to get in front of people where they’re at and encourage them to think about manufacturing in a way that maybe they hadn’t before. We needed to remind them of some of the benefits that come with a career in manufacturing.”

The Manufacturing is Hiring campaign was crafted by CME Manitoba in conjunction with a local ad agency. Advertisements promoting it are currently in bus shelters in Winnipeg and on billboards in rural Manitoba.

The tone of the campaign is meant to be both positive and playful, Aiello says, and create a greater awareness of what the manufacturing sector has to offer to people who may be considering a career change.

“It’s meant to create a sort of ‘did you know’ kind of awareness,” she explains. “A lot of people aren’t familiar with the fact that we’re making all kinds of interesting products within the province. It’s all about putting this information in front of them where they are and reminding them there are a lot of career opportunities within manufacturing.”

One of the more unique aspects of the campaign is that each poster promoting it features a QR code. Individuals who scan the code with their mobile device are directed to a webpage with a list of manufacturers in the province who are currently hiring and links to their websites. It also features testimonials from people currently working in the manufacturing sector.

Jill Knaggs, director of marketing and communications for CME Manitoba, says the hope is that highlighting career opportunities will help to broaden people’s understanding of who can and should consider a career in manufacturing.

The Manufacturing is Hiring campaign is just one of a number of initiatives the CME has recently undertaken to boost interest in the manufacturing sector.

“People think of manufacturing as dark and dingy and dirty and kind of like the Industrial Revolution, which couldn’t be further from the truth,” she says.

“We’ve got companies like Precision ADM, which does additive manufacturing. We produce pharmaceuticals and life-saving health-care products. We’ve got clean facilities that are really cutting edge. It’s been kind of fun (during the campaign) to hear people go ‘I didn’t even think of that as a career choice before.’”

Knaggs points out that while CME Manitoba organized the campaign, a number of non-CME members have reached out since its launch asking to be part of it.

Although it’s too soon to say what the impact of the Manufacturing is Hiring campaign has been, Knaggs says the early feedback from participating companies has been extremely positive.

“We’ve heard some great feedback from our members saying this is exactly what they wanted and needed,” she says, adding the campaign could eventually be expanded to other parts of the country depending on how successful it is in Manitoba.

The Manufacturing is Hiring campaign is just one of a number of initiatives the CME has recently undertaken to boost interest in the manufacturing sector.

A number of member companies now offer open door tours of their facilities to students to provide them with a better understanding of the career opportunities they have to offer. The CME also launched a pilot project last fall in conjunction with the provincial government and the Manitoba Institute of Trades & Technology that allows individuals on Employment and Income Assistance to take part in an eight-week training program focused on basic skills needed to work in manufacturing.

“People think of manufacturing as dark and dingy and dirty and kind of like the Industrial Revolution, which couldn’t be further from the truth.” – Jill Knaggs

Knaggs says boosting the labour pool for Manitoba’s manufacturing sector is critical to the province’s economic success, especially with some of the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic. It’s estimated that manufacturing sales in the province are worth $20.8 billion annually and represent 9.4 per cent of its gross domestic product.

“Manufacturing has been the backbone and fabric of our lives and livelihoods as Canadians,” she says. “I think the pandemic has really opened people’s eyes to how important the sector is as we started realizing how many shortages we might have in producing essential goods here in Canada.”

Find out more at: cme-mec.ca