America’s drive to compete with China in manufacturing requires lots more skilled workers. Tennessee’s experiment with free technical school, and its close partnerships with business giants like Volkswagen and Nissan, offer a glimpse of the future.
Back in the mid-2010s, when there were only a few thousand electric vehicles on the roads of Tennessee, the state launched an initiative — unique in the US at the time – offering free community and technical college to nearly every adult.
Half a decade later, with EVs at the heart of the most ambitious US industrial policy since World War II, that landmark decision is paying off – and also pushing up against its limits. The state has approved a $1 billion boost for technical colleges.
Federal incentives are driving investments in the electric-car industry worth more than $100 billion. Every state wants a piece of the action, and Tennessee is getting plenty. It’s a lynchpin of the new Battery Belt that stretches from Michigan to Georgia. More than $16 billion in EV capital has poured into the state since 2017. Last year, Ford Motor Co. broke ground on a giant new plant near Memphis that’s slated to open in 2025 and churn out half a million electric trucks per year.
But the drive to reboot manufacturing and claim national leadership in strategic technologies is about to crunch up against a shortfall in trained workers — and impose new demands on technical education all across America.
Conversations with more than two dozen people — including executives, policy makers in federal, state and local governments, educators and students — highlight the challenges involved, even in states like Tennessee that got ahead of the curve. They include how to pitch manufacturing as a career to digital-age teenagers, and tailor trade schools to the needs of business. It’s an area where economists reckon the US, after decades of de-industrialization, lags behind powerhouse manufacturing nations like Germany.
