SOUTH PLAINFIELD, N.J., Oct. 4, 2019 — 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.