(upbeat music)

All right, our next presenter is John Zappa, the Director of Product Management at the Advanced Robotics for Manufacturing Institute. I'm personally very excited to listen to this presentation because I feel very passionate about pathways for our students and industry partnerships. Today, John's going to share how robotics competitions can provide career pathways and how those pathways can prepare our students for future opportunities in advanced manufacturing. So please help me give John a very warm welcome.

(audience clapping)

Thank you, Nicole, hello everyone. How are you all doing? I'm good. Thumbs up, thumbs down? Okay, thumbs up. Okay, good. All right, so here, my name's John Zappa. I'm with the ARM Institute, that's a mouthful. Advanced Robotics for Manufacturing Institute. I'll tell you more about that in a minute, but I thought I would just tell you a little bit about me. I am not an educator, my mother was a teacher. My mother-in-law was a teacher. My daughter is an elementary school teacher. So surrounded, but I personally am not an educator.

My background's a little different. I started as a manufacturing engineer many, many, many years ago, implementing a robot in a manufacturing line 40 years ago, 40 years ago this month actually. But since then I've spent a lot of time in what you would call the intersection of education and technology. I worked for a nonprofit that helped working adults go back to school where we had something called a prior learning assessment. So store manager in our retail environment. What skills are you learning that could translate to a college degree? So we had a whole service around that. And then I also managed, I led a company that managed education, tuition reimbursement plans. So a Starbucks employee, they were one of our customers, wants to go back to school to work towards a degree. They would come to us, we would make sure are they going to an accredited school, are they getting a passing grade? Is it something job related? Great, we'll cut them a reimbursement check.

So the reason I tell you all this, my perspective is a little bit more of a workforce in the intersection of where education hits the workforce. That's where a lot of my career has been based. So that's the orientation I'm gonna bring to this discussion.

So, as I said, I'm with the ARM Institute, ARM is based in Pittsburgh. We are a national institute. However, we were spun out of Carnegie Mellon. There are 17 national institutes across the United States. They're all federally funded. And these are all manufacturing institutes. It's part of the Manufacturing USA brand. And you would say, well, why do these exist? There's a lot of concern around how to strengthen the US supply chain and build our own capacity, if you will, in the US, and specifically our focus is on robotics, no surprise, it's right in the name of the organization.

We're set up as a consortium, we are nonprofits. We have a little over 450 members. The members include manufacturers, educators, accredited institutions, if you will, government agencies. So it's a real mix of folks that are looking at the lens through how do we strengthen the US supply chain. Specifically with our mission, there's a couple parts to it, one is to bring folks together. So there is a consortium view. Another is to demonstrate what robotics technology can do in a manufacturing environment. We've funded over $120 million worth of projects around that, what's possible, and how do you use robots to do all sorts of jobs?

But the most important part, I think this is where I'm based, is on the workforce side, how do you build a workforce that can manage this technology as we go forward? So it's not lost on the organizations that fund us, is we need the people as much as we need the technology. So that's again, the view of how this goes. So I'm gonna be talking to you from a manufacturing context, because that's where we fit.

There's a lot of job opportunity in manufacturing. There's half a million unfilled jobs as we sit here in this room. It's projected to become even more of a challenge. You can see the numbers here. This was just published, actually this was published in April, by the Manufacturing Institute in Deloitte. They do a biannual report, and it's projected that 2.1 million jobs will go unfilled by the end of the decade. That's a lot of jobs, and we're talking about jobs that are, many of them, in advanced manufacturing, deploying robotics, deploying 3D printing, or using digitization in a manufacturing environment. These are skills that a lot of your students are learning or getting exposed to as part of these competitions.

So that's kind of where things are going. Lots of opportunity, but at the ARM Institute, we're like, well, how do we make some sense of this? That's important to know, but how do we make this into something actionable? So we talked to our consortium members, and we actually did more than just talk to them; we conducted a very involved exercise. We asked them, well, you're the ones hiring for these jobs. For the ones that are robotics-related, what are the actual skills you need? What specifically are you looking for?

What we learned is there's a whole set of skills, and I'll just take you through this very briefly. There are skills in the green that are more at a technician individual workstation level. These are entry-level roles in robotics and manufacturing, things like robot programming, maintenance and troubleshooting, and electronics and controls. I think a lot of these concepts are embedded directly in what some of the students are doing.

There's another role, a robotic specialist, which is more of an engineer role. How does this equipment relate to other parts of equipment in our manufacturing environment? Then there's this role here, integrator. These are the folks that look at where automation fits in our environment. They analyze the data, look at the systems, and determine the best place to utilize automation. So, three distinct career paths.

And I'm gonna give you just a little more commentary on each one. The technician role may or may not be a job title; it might be automation technician, manufacturing and production technician, or mechatronics technician. Companies call them different things. But the point is, it's a bundle of skills that I just showed you. These roles are entry-level roles. You can see what they pay; this is based on real data from the last year of jobs posted in the United States. These are not made-up numbers. The range is due to geographical differences. This role typically requires an associate's degree or community college education, or potentially just a certification within a certain domain.

A different role is the robotics specialist, robotics engineer, mechatronics engineer, automation, or production engineer. There are a lot of titles, but it's a pathway, a bundle of skills, represented by that orange layer I showed you. These roles pay more, but more education is ultimately required. This is typically a bachelor's degree role going forward. These are the folks implementing the robotic systems, not maintaining them.

Lastly, as I mentioned, there's the integrator role. These are probably the most experienced and require the most education, typically paying the most as well. These are the folks figuring out how to use automation in our environment.

So that's great. Now we know that there are pathways available, and at ARM, we are like, well, this is helpful information, but how do we make it helpful to people? Okay, that's great on a screen conceptually that there are these pathways, but how do I get from here to there?

Thank you for your attention and for being part of this important conversation. We look forward to working together to bridge the skills gap in manufacturing.

And so the notion of what we came up with is this idea of let's match people on skills. Skills that they're learning today, skills that they wanna learn, skills that are being taught by education programs, or skills that jobs require. Let's connect people through that approach. So this is a whole skills-based way of matching people. And I'm gonna put forward, it's a very powerful idea, very powerful idea. This is not a, we're gonna go to Indeed and do a keyword search and see what we find. This is like, based on what my skills I have, how do I connect to opportunities that are meaningful to me?

This is the author Victor Hugo, of course, all the forces in the world are not so powerful as an idea whose time has come. And the idea here is a skills-based matching for people. That is what I really want to get across.

So I have a small video, we're gonna see if this plays, and we'll give it a whirl. So this explains robotics careers, which is what we created as a way to address this.

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Today's manufacturing workers need skills like robotics programming, mechanical systems, and teamwork. Roboticscareer.org is here to match workers with careers that fit their skills.

(robot whirring)

This is Rosa. She's not particularly satisfied with her current job, but isn't quite sure how to move forward. This is Darius, he has a problem. One of his best employees, Sam, just got promoted. He needs a qualified replacement with the same skills. Rosa is frustrated with traditional job search websites that constantly funnel her leads that don't match her ambitions. Darius isn't faring so well either, his current employees are struggling to fill Sam's shoes. But then a friend tells Rosa about a new opportunity he found using roboticscareer.org. They loved participating in robotics competitions together in high school, but is that really something she could make into a career? She quickly finds roboticscareer.org and clicks on find your match. Find your Match helps Rosa spotlight skills like teamwork and work ethic, as well as competencies like robot programming that make her suited for a career in advanced manufacturing and matches her with curated job openings that fit her unique abilities, which means Rosa aces her interview. By connecting job seekers with employers in advanced manufacturing, the ARM institute is building the workforce of the future. For Darius's team, it means they can all get back to doing what they do best. And for Rosa, it means she's finally found the place she belongs. Find your match at roboticscareer.org.

All right, so did you catch the part about robotics competitions in there? Did you guys see that? Okay, this is true, right? So, literally, what your students are learning can be, over time, transferable to job opportunities out there, specifically in manufacturing. That's the biggest point I want to get across. We'll get into the details of how to take advantage of this, but that's the main point I want to get across to you.

So the website is roboticscareer.org. We'll have a QR code here in a minute, but it includes training and jobs. There's 16,000 training programs in the United States that teach something about robotics. And I mean certainly there's degree programs, but there's also certificate programs, there's industry training, all of it is cataloged. We took the time to say, if that training teaches one or more of those skills that I showed you, we want it. If it doesn't, it's noise. So every geography in the US has training programs that we've identified. And I use the word training loosely. I'm sure folks at accredited universities would say, well, we're providing education. Okay, fine, but the point is, it's in here.

And there's this little badge, by the way, I'll talk about that in a minute more, to denote programs we've actually audited the program to look at the outcomes that are being generated and say, hey, you know what?

Thank you for your attention and interest in this initiative. We believe that by focusing on skills, we can create meaningful connections between job seekers and employers, ultimately building a stronger workforce for the future.

That's a really good program, and we want to honor that. So those are our endorsed programs, the program endorsements.

We're gathering data to understand what's happening. Are there mismatches in different geographies? What are the jobs looking for? What skills are people bringing to the table? Since we launched the site, 80,000 people have used it. We've had over a thousand folks create profiles, particularly VEX alumni. It's a way to connect people, and we start to look at whether there's a mismatch in a given geography, which happens behind the scenes.

This job business involves training for 16,700 programs. There are about 2,500 jobs available each week. We work with a jobs aggregator that looks at LinkedIn, Indeed, Simply Hired, Monster, and the USA jobs site, which is the federal government site. It aggregates, dedupes, and catalogs the jobs. We only want the ones that map to the skills I mentioned earlier. If it doesn't map to one of those skills, it's noise. If it's not in manufacturing, it doesn't make sense for us. We post these jobs twice a week to keep the catalog as fresh as possible.

There are also many articles published by folks, such as "What does a robotics technician do?" "What does this pay?" "What's the education?" "Can I switch careers?" "What do I need to get into robotics?" "How are robotics used in auto manufacturing?" "How are drones used in a manufacturing environment?" There's a lot of content available for people to search. By the way, all of this is free. This has been built with US tax dollars. I just want to make sure you understand that this is a free resource. There is no cost other than an email to participate.

I mentioned we have an endorsement program. Since this is an audience of educators, we take this notion seriously. Just because a program claims to offer something, is it really teaching some outcome? We go through a process where we'll actually review, similar to an ISO audit in the manufacturing world. We'll look at the elements and whether they generate the desired outcome. Do people actually learn those skills? That's what we're validating. We're not an accrediting group, nor do we intend to be. But we want to know if you're generating outcomes with your students and if they are able to go places. These are the things we look at during an evaluation. Then we'll put that badge on a program. So when people search the site, they'll see that it's a program endorsed by ARM.

When people create a profile, every two weeks they can get an update. If you're interested in training programs that teach certain skills, you'll receive updates on new offerings. More importantly, if you're looking for a job, every two weeks you'll get an update on new jobs available that match the skills you told us were important or the skills you bring to the table. It's very tailored. This is one I received just last month. It's a powerful way to connect people via the skills.

So how are we doing on time here? We're okay. Folks have been using this, and we're getting a lot of validation from employers, educators, prospective students, and job seekers. We conducted a survey and asked people how it's working for them. These are the quotes we got back. I want to draw out this one in particular: "As an advanced manufacturing robotics instructor, I'm looking for ways to connect what I teach to actual career opportunities. It has become one of my best resources for helping match students with careers where they can utilize their robotics training."

I didn't write that.

That was obviously an instructor that's getting a lot of value out of what we're doing. This young lady, she went to one of the programs, she posted this on LinkedIn actually. She went to one of the endorsed programs, University of Maryland. She was very excited about using Robotics Career. Now she works at NIST, National Institutes of Standard in Technology. She used Robotics Career, she found her path to the future, and she took the time to tell us about it.

So I'm just trying to give you a sense, people are getting value out of what they're doing. So the question kind of is how can you use this, and I think I would argue support your students in taking their next steps, specifically, encouraging them to create accounts that can help them. Now, I would say probably like at a high school level, people trying to find their next education path. This is ideal for that. Or people that are in a little bit later years in their high school, trying to figure out maybe I want to go work in the workforce with what I've learned, very applicable. Middle school, which I know is where we are right now, is probably a little bit further out, but I want you to be aware of this resource.

So by the way, if your school teaches a program, we actually review a variety of education options. We've reviewed STEM programs at a high school level and have put our ARM endorsement badge on those because, again, it's based on outcomes. Where are they actually teaching the students? So I don't want anybody to walk away thinking ARM is only looking at university programs. We look at certificate programs, high school STEM programs, industry training programs, all of those have been endorsed. So VEX alumni have a unique place to go. This is on the landing page of it with REC foundation. So if you compete, if you come to the site, you can actually build your own profile. But I would encourage anybody here, if you want to check the QR code, you can create your own profile and check it out too to see how this could be a resource for your students.

So this is, again, no charge other than providing an email. So sure, we're able to keep in touch with you. But this is unique, we're very excited about working with the REC foundation and VEX in terms of the ability to showcase what's possible. And again, it builds on what folks are learning in these competitions because we see a very natural affinity here with what's going on. Last thing, you can create a profile to get started. Perhaps your robotics instructor that's looking to go elsewhere, you could do that too. Not encouraging that. Main point though is this is a resource that's out there. You can help your students to find a pathway over time or find a path to education that can build into a job.

So I'm gonna stop and ask what questions we have. Yes, straight out, and we have a microphone, okay, hold on. They're gonna bring it to you.

[Audience Member 1] I thank you very much for your presentation. This is very, very helpful for me. So I am a community college instructor. Yes. Looking to create a robotics course in the near future, like next semester. And so this is what I needed. So my question is, what are the three student learning outcomes you look for to endorse the program?

The three outcomes we look for in an endorsed program? Well, we want to see have the students learned the skills that the program is claiming that they can achieve. We'll look for, have you been able to place students into, if it's a job situation or into their next step. So are they able to use this in a meaningful way? We don't look at curriculum like an accreditor looks at a curriculum, but we will look at like, what's the health of the organization? Is it sustainable? So those are criteria as well. There's a whole online intake process we go through.

By the way, just since you're contemplating this, I'm not gonna do a demo here, but I will show you. Here's the live site, and if you come up over here under training programs, you can see, show me all the endorsed programs, and it'll list them out for you down below. You can look for ones that are community college. So see what they did, see what they're offering. So just as a benchmark, if nothing else.

Yes, question over here.

[Audience Member 2] So my question is geared toward ninth through 12. Yes. So are there like summer opportunities for the kids? And also is there like an age range that you're looking for with these programs?

Yeah, great question. So we do have internships listed on here. You can search on internships when you come over to find jobs, for instance, there is a whole category called internships. They tend to be a little bit further down, like for college students, we are absolutely looking for internship programs that we can appeal to a high school level. I don't think we're gonna have an offering for middle school anytime soon, but at the high school level, we absolutely want to help folks get engaged and connect. So we do have some apprenticeships and some internships listed on here. They're typically more for university level.

So is that for--

Or college level, I shouldn't say university. No, no worries.

Oh, so is that more so geared to like your juniors and seniors?

Yeah, I would say so. Okay. Yeah, for now, for now. I mean, at the end of the day, ARM's mission is to grow the pool of people that are accessing, I told you 2.1 million jobs, so our mission is to try to make sure we grow that and make it as accessible as possible. Today, though it is probably more geared for internships at a college age level. Okay. Just to be clear.

Yes.

[Audience Member 3] Do you look at robotics camps provided by a university and give them certifications?

Yeah, so the question is do we look at robotics camps provided by education institutions? I would say today we haven't specifically looked at that, but there's no reason we couldn't, if we became aware, list those programs. By the way, educators can create their own accounts on robotics career and manage their content and how it's displayed, or we could do it for you, but be happy to include those. Because if it's teaching outcomes or people are learning skills, again, we're not so much worried about what credential people are getting, that's always good. But we're worried about what skills are they developing.

[Audience Member 3] Second question, piggybacking off of that, you mentioned the students can create accounts. Is there something on the website that allows a college to connect with students that have these skills when that's what we're looking for?

That's a great question. So can a college connect with the students? No, we have not added that feature. What we do have is for employers to connect with people. And I guess I'll show you that, are we okay on time? Yeah? Yeah, please.

Okay, so I'm gonna sign in, and I'm gonna pretend to be an employer that's looking for people to hire. And so this is kind of the backend, in my dummy organization, ARM Institute Testing is now hiring for all of these roles. Automation technician, robotics engineer. And by the way, there's for employer, if there's an employer in the room, there are templates to help you write a job description like in all of two minutes based on what employers told us are the things we need. So, but if I'm an employer, I can create an account and I can start to look for candidates on here. And so for instance, if I want to see Profile Last Updated within the last 30 days, I'm interested in folks that have done that. And if I can, I want to see based on certain skills that might be out there, let me apply this filter first and let me go back. And I'm interested in folks that maybe have always challenged doing a live demo here.

Thank you for your attention and participation. If you have any further questions, feel free to reach out. We appreciate your interest and look forward to connecting with you in the future.

But let's say folks that have advanced robot programming, they've posted here in the last 30 days, they're interested in being contacted. I can see people that, for instance, this fellow here, look at, he's in Arizona, he's got his LinkedIn profile connected to this. He's got his description and probably most importantly, he tells you which skills he's self-reported. If I want to contact him, I get his email right there, and I can do that as an employer. So we do have that on the employer side. We don't have it on an educator side.

On the educator side, what we do have is, I'll show you that real quickly. Let me log out from being an employer, and I'll log into being a job seeker, if you will. So I have a profile on here. I've used Robotics Career as a way to kind of, hmm, find job opportunities, find education opportunities. If I want, I can actually help me find training. So I can go through this process of, show me training programs, this is a matched thing. And this is probably applicable from the student side. I can pick a geography. I can pick a city in that state, for instance, where there's an education program existing. I can pick the length of the program, I can pick if I want degree programs or I want certificate programs. All of that is available here. I want apprenticeships format. We're gonna leave it open online, in person, hybrid.

This is the part where I have to say, what do I wanna learn? So these are the skills that I want to develop. So I went ahead, and by the way, every one of these has a definition. Like what do we mean by robot and troubleshooting in a manufacturing context. So I can say, hey, I wanna learn these skills better or I want to strengthen these. I might have been introduced somewhere along the way. Great! And you always have to pick a soft skill too. We're not gonna be ignoring those. So I have to say, what soft skill do I wanna strengthen? So based on that, we'll see what we come up with, by the way.

So we're doing a live query against that database. And I'm asking in the state of Ohio, show me programs and look at that, it found three 100% matches in Columbus, Fremont, and Xenia, Ohio. And two of them are endorsed programs, by the way. If it's an endorsed program, it always rises to the top if it's in a given geography. And so this one's offered by FANUC, this one's offered by the community college, this one's offered by a career center. Let's take a look at this one right here, just for grins. And the reason I'm going to all this length is to show you that as a prospective student, I can connect directly to the catalog at the school because we have all that built in. And then if I want, I can contact the school. So tell them, hey, can you send me your catalog or whatever. So we're going the other direction right now.

Other questions? No? Okay. Anything missing besides what we just heard? No. What do you guys think? Thumbs up, thumbs down, thumbs sideways? Thumbs up, okay, all right, good. Good. Would welcome your feedback. There is some literature on the side table. If you want to have a small card that talks about this. I did leave my contact information up on any of the slides that are gonna be available. Again, if you have a program, and you want us to take a look at it, endorse it, we'd be happy to do that. If you have a program, you want to get it listed, you can create an account and get it listed. It's a resource for your students ultimately. We're trying to grow the pool of people that see manufacturing and utilizing robotics in manufacturing. The skills they're developing today, how do they translate it into the future? So that's what this is all about.

On that note, thank you, appreciate your time and attention. Thank you so much.

(audience claps)

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