Posted February 23, 2017

The industry spoke. And N.C. State’s College of Textiles (COT) listened – and acted.

Every year, the College hosts a career fair, but it typically takes place in the fall. It even held one in 2001 – on Sept. 12, the day after the 9/11 terror attacks, when 18 companies participated despite the somber, sobering mood in the room and in the entire world.

But this month – for the first time in more than a quarter of a century – it put on a Job Forum & Career Fair in the spring semester. (Read review here). It did so on the guidance of the textile industry, which is experiencing something of a resurgence and facing the aging workforce problem.

And the resurgence, of course, is a good thing.

“The fall career fair served us well for more than 25 years,” said Kent Hester, director, Office of Student & Career Service, which organized the event. “But about three years ago, as the economy and companies were emerging from the recession, several companies asked us to host a spring career fair. The primary reason was that September was too early for many companies to know what their staffing and internship needs were for the year, and because many of our new companies from the retail and fashion sectors worked with a much later timeline than did the manufacturing companies that once dominated the fair.”

And for its first spring semester Career Fair since the Clinton Administration’s first term, Hester called this one a success. He said he would have been happy with 30 companies, but 47 participated, bringing a total of 123 industry representatives. Among them were 19 first-time companies. Oh, and 400 to 450 students brought their resumes and sales pitches to the event.

But success can’t be fully gauged until those students are placed in internships or entry-level positions in the industry – which is typically good, based on past results. Though not all emerging from this event, the College of Textiles placement record is hovering around 97 percent, Hester said. And feedback for the Career Fair, Hester said, has been “very positive.”

“The secondary measure of success will be the number of companies that follow-through by interviewing our students and graduates, which has been quite robust thus far,” he said.

As was many of the participating companies, I was impressed by the poise, passion and professional demeanor exhibited by the College of Textiles students I talked with. Oh, and their level of confidence and knowledge they showed was outstanding. It’s certainly refreshing to see young folks express a desire to join our growing (again), dynamic industry.

My purpose in covering the event was to gain insights into what type of employees companies were seeking and what type of careers students were looking for – and to see if the twain would meet. Particular and pressing needs in the industry, as we all know, is on the manufacturing side. And the College has always taught fiber, yarn, fabric and dyeing and finishing as a core curriculum, so its students have always been qualified to go into production positions, Hester said.

Sure, a majority (527) of the current undergraduate students are fashion and textile design/management majors, but a healthy number (399) of students are earning degrees in textile technology, textile engineering and polymer and color chemistry.

“The challenge now is to re-introduce manufacturing as a viable career path to our students,” Hester said. “For close to 20 years, very few companies were hiring students into manufacturing positions, so this career option has fallen off the radar screen for most students. Those students willing to explore and go into manufacturing have more options now than they have had in many years, but now there are far more options for students graduating.”

As such, companies are going to have to truly market and sell manufacturing and the benefits of a career in manufacturing if they want students to take notice, he added.

“The pay is only a small part of what students look for now, so advertising high-paying production careers is not enough,” he said. “Also, what was the norm when I graduated – being ‘thrown’ onto third or second shift to ‘pay my dues’ will not cut it with students today, so companies will need to update their marketing approach to cater to a class of students with very different expectations than two decades ago.”

Ok, textile manufacturers – that sounds like marching orders to me. Take that as a challenge to target, attract and hire the younger generation to our industry. After all, #WeMakeAmazing and it’s up to us to let them know.