October 27, 2025 Building Talent Locally: A Manufacturing Imperative

Local partnerships matter, but scalable management and talent visibility drive job placement and lasting operational strength.

By Matthew J. Daniel

In my view, the manufacturing sector is facing its own version of an Apollo 13 mission. The talent-shortage crisis is visible from mission control; time is running short to fix it; and the solution has to come from a realistic approach using tools already on board. That means building from the workforce we already employ. It’s the only way to land this thing.

Here’s the situation I hardly need to remind leaders of: Manufacturing plants are modernizing with automation, AI, and robotics redefining frontline roles, and reshoring is driving production back to American soil. At the same time, the workforce powering these shifts is shrinking: 27% of manufacturing workers are now over the age of 55 and nearing retirement. The talent shortage is no longer a distant warning: Deloitte and the Manufacturing Institute project that the industry will need 3.8 million new workers this decade, and nearly half of those jobs will go unfilled if current trends continue. At the end of the day, the stakes go beyond keeping lines moving. They’re about sustaining the country’s industrial resurgence and building economic resilience. Yet we need a playbook for what comes next.

And this isn’t simply a volume problem. Even in the places where manufacturing can find bodies, they often can’t find the skills they need among available workers. Some companies are beginning to solve for this by putting their education benefits to work reskilling existing employees. For example, at its Sharpie plant in Tennessee, Newell Brands built new manufacturing capabilities by partnering with nearby colleges and using its education benefits program to help employees earn the degrees and credentials needed for advanced technical roles.

The key to navigating these circumstances is realizing that manufacturers don’t need to look outward for answers. The workforce they already employ holds the potential to avert catastrophe. However, this is only possible if companies commit to building talent from within, and they invest in the right local partnerships and talent development strategy to make that growth possible.

Why Building Beats Buying

A new report from Guild and Lightcast makes the case plain: The traditional approach of buying talent from the open market is breaking down.

The labor pool is shrinking. Just 29% of the manufacturing workforce are women, compared to 47% across the U.S. labor force. At the same time, demand for younger workers is outpacing supply.

Skills are shifting faster than the market can provide. Over the last 12 months, specialized skill requirements grew 22% for machine operators and 37% for warehouse and distribution specialists. Employers are chasing skills that simply don’t exist at the scale required.

And the costs are climbing. Manufacturers spent more than $10 billion last year on talent acquisition, often hiring externally at premium wages only to see those workers leave before the investment pays back. Every unfilled operator or maintenance role means lost production; every failed hire makes recovery more complicated and products more costly.

The same report shows that building from within offers a different path. Across just five critical frontline roles — tractor-trailer drivers, production workers, packaging machine operators, operations supervisors, and quality technicians — employers can save an average of nearly $30,000 per role by developing internal talent rather than recruiting externally. In total, manufacturers could save nearly $3 billion annually by making this shift.

More than just cost savings, building talent internally shortens time-to-fill, preserves institutional knowledge, and produces a workforce more ready to adapt to change.

The Local Partnership Imperative

If building is the strategy, local partnerships are the engine.

Community colleges, trade schools, and technical institutes play a critical role in filling today’s manufacturing talent gap. Pathways that combine classroom and shop-floor training, short-form certificates aligned to high-demand roles, and stackable credentials that allow employees to move toward degrees are all examples of learning that works.

Local access to learning matters because it puts essential hands-on training within reach. Workers can’t reasonably commute long distances, front program costs on their own, or navigate complex learning journeys that often involve multiple stakeholders. Along that journey, learners encounter a web of players including employer teams, managers, schools, workforce boards, and regional agencies — each with its own requirements and timelines. What learners need are programs in their own communities, aligned directly to roles employers struggle most to fill, such as industrial maintenance, machine operators, or quality technicians — and comprehensive support to navigate the winding path into job placement.

For employers, the payoff is immediate. These partnerships connect current and local workers to the skills plants need right now. And for employees, they provide a visible path forward instead of a dead end.

Turning Principle Into Practice

But local partnerships only succeed when the proper infrastructure is in place.

Long or variable shifts make it difficult to attend traditional classes, and participation drops when programs aren’t designed with that reality in mind. It’s the programs that combine asynchronous coursework or modular credentials — supported by coaching, tuition coverage, and manager engagement — that make it possible for workers to actually persist.

There’s also the challenge of consistency. In large, multi-state systems, headquarters may set the overall talent strategy, but execution is left to regional or facility leaders. These leaders want to own their pipelines but often lack consistent tools, templates, and data. The result is uneven program quality: Some sites manage to stand up effective pipelines, while others struggle or stall. Central teams are left without visibility, unable to see or scale what works or offer game-changing personalized support.

Recently launched tools like Navigator, from talent development company Guild, are designed to close this gap. Navigator helps manufacturers build precise talent pipelines by operationalizing local learning partnerships, centralizing the management of employees’ learning journeys. This ensures employees receive the necessary support to persist, and equips regional leaders with ready-made workflows to launch and manage them. At the same time, it provides headquarters with consistent reporting and visibility across all sites. In practice, that means local leaders can tap talent and build pipelines quickly, without reinventing the wheel, employees are less overwhelmed, and central teams can finally see, support, and scale what’s working.

Workers Ready to Grow

When pathways are visible, younger and more diverse workers step forward. Recent data shows that 54% of learners enrolled in manufacturing, transportation, and logistics programs through Guild are ages 20 to 34, nearly double the 29% industry makeup for that age group. And 38% of these learners identify as women, compared to 29% across the industry.

For many, applied learning is a chance to advance where they already are. One employee at a large consumer goods manufacturer used her education benefit to pivot from finance into operations — the career path she had long wanted. “There was literally no out-of-pocket expense except my books, which they’re refunding me,” she said. “They made it very seamless and made it super easy to sign up and get accepted and do this.”

Another frontline worker at the same company described how applied learning gave him upward mobility he hadn’t imagined possible: “There was a point in my life where this was not something that I thought was gonna happen … but life changes, and your goals change along with it. And right now, I could see myself a level above a supply chain leader.”

Stories like these illustrate the other side of the ROI equation. Every worker who advances into a new role fills a critical gap for the business. Every new skill acquired makes a plant more resilient.

Landing the Transformation

The future of manufacturing will be determined as much by talent pipelines as by technology. Robotics and AI may transform how work gets done, but they won’t keep lines running if plants can’t retain enough maintenance technicians to keep equipment online. Reshoring will falter if local workforces aren’t prepared to step into modern roles.

This is the urgent problem facing the sector — one that every manufacturer, large or small, must consider. The good news is that the tools are within reach. By focusing on local partnerships, applied learning, and building talent from within, manufacturers can stabilize their pipelines, contain costs, and prepare their people for what’s next. Like the engineers on Apollo 13, the industry doesn’t need a miracle from outside. It needs to use what’s already on board.

About the Author:
Matthew J. Daniel is Senior Principal for Talent Strategy at Guild, where he advises employers on talent practices, HR platforms, and skilling strategies. With 20 years of experience leading and consulting on talent development and learning transformations, he specializes in learning technology, learner experience, and talent mobility.

He regularly conducts research and shares insights on the future of work, the intersection of L&D and DEI, and emerging talent trends through articles, webinars, and industry events. Matthew also served on the U.S. Defense Business Board from 2022-2025 and the advisory board of Class. His writing has appeared in various publications, and he has two upcoming books with ATD Press.

Read more from the author:

Solving the manufacturing talent shortage at scale | Compass, June 23, 2025

How Skilling Can Make A Significant Impact Where Talent Is Scarce | HRTech Series, July 7, 2025

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