Closing the Talent Gap

This article originally appeared in the November/December 2020 issue of Middle Market Growth. 

Matthew Davis has a passion for developing talent. It’s what he built his career on, and he’s now applying that enthusiasm to help address the skills gap in manufacturing at a critical time.

Raised in Argos, Indiana, a city of just over 1,600 residents, Davis recalls visiting his father, uncle and grandmother while they worked at ITAMCO, a maker of gears and other components used in the mining, energy and defense industries.

Today, Davis is putting his passion for developing others to use as the training and organizational development manager and head of community outreach for ITAMCO.

Like many other communities across the U.S., Plymouth has struggled to attract and retain manufacturing talent.

“I’ve got three kids. What does the future look like for them?” Davis asks. “How do we continue to lead the younger generation to fill the gaps that we’re going to have here very soon?”

According to a report released in August by the Manufacturing Institute, an advocacy group focused on developing skilled workers, there were more than 500,000 unfilled manufacturing jobs in 2019 nationwide, a gap expected to grow to 2.4 million by 2028.

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