2025 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Workforce recruitment and retention have become the top challenge for manufacturers across the country, creating an urgent demand for more effective professional workforce development (PWD). New PWD initiatives must be designed to meet the specific hiring needs of the manufacturing industry. Consequently, it is essential that the opinions and input of manufacturing employers be integrated into the creation and implementation of such PWD programs.

While existing workforce development literature provides general collaborative relationship frameworks that encourage educators to involve employers, there is still a lack of research guiding how to effectively engage manufacturers in the development and delivery of PWD programs. In this paper, we address this gap by studying manufacturing employers’ views on their participation in PWD programs. Specifically, we conducted a qualitative study to explore five key areas of employer participation: oversight, program design, program delivery, recruitment and hiring, and financial support.

Additionally, there is a gap in the literature regarding how employer participation impacts the learning environment within these programs. Current research tends to focus on the overall structure of the program rather than the specific learning aspect. Existing studies lack attention to the specific ways that employer participation influences the design and delivery of the learning environment in the program. As such, this study also examined employers' preferences for contributing to establishing an effective learning environment in PWD programs.

Our paper aims to bridge this gap by offering actionable insights and recommendations to increase employer involvement in both the operational and educational aspects of PWD programs. Our goal is to help build a larger, more skilled workforce to meet the growing demands of the manufacturing industry.