Foreign investors face significant hurdles in US market

[FarCenter]

With the US in difficult economic straits, the Obama administration hopes to fight unemployment through foreign investment. But many obstacles stand in the way of companies that want to expand in America.
...
Lack of skills

Christian König, president of ThyssenKrupp USA, is satisfied with the "Select USA" initiative. He told Deutsche Welle that he would be "happy to have a central office in Washington where we could welcome our workers." The company surveyed 67 different locations in 20 US states before deciding on Calvert, Alabama for its $5-million US location.

But there's something else bothering König: "I would also prefer to train our American workers here in the US, instead of having to send them to Germany like we're forced to do at the moment.

At the moment, America - in stark contrast to China and India - is lacking skilled workers. Martin Daum, president of Daimler Trucks North America, goes further: "If we're looking for an engineer or a researcher, we have to look outside the States."

"We would find such skilled workers in Mexico before we would find them in the United States," Daum added.

Workers often have to be trained in the basic mathematics and writing skills needed for their task, which Daum called a "limiting factor" for growth of such companies.

"We can build up a company in Mexico three or four times faster than we could in the US where the workers first have to be thoroughly trained."

http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,15446133,00.html

[hedgehog]

1. "if there was, indeed, a labor shortage, then engineering salaries would be rising and

companies would be paying huge bonuses to attract and retain talent."

http://techcrunch.com/2010/12/04/shortage-of-engineers-or-a-glut-no-simple-answer/


I don't agree with all the author has to say, but that phrase hits the nail on the head!

[leftstreet]

2. Yes it's all our fault. We're too stooopid to have a Jobs Program n/t

[HereSince1628]

3. Calvert AL is a widespot on the highway ~40 miles north of Mobile

google earth it... I don't mean to say anything bad about engineers in Alabama. But if I searched through 20 US states looking for a location rich in engineers and machinists, I probably wouldn't choose a rural town with 6 streets unless there were other incentives.

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

6. Two different quotes,

One from ThyssenKrupp and the other from Daimler. Daimler is all over the place but mostly in Michigan and Oregon.

[Arctic Dave]

4. Bullshit. Always they same lame ass excuse.

This is part of the corporate meme to give people a feeling of under accomplishment so they can pay them less.

"We would pay you more but you not "trained" enough". The oilfield has used this excuse for a decade. Then the training they send you to is completely irrelevant to anything you do. But you have to do all of "their" training to recieve a raise.

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

5. European employers have different expectations in terms of basic skills

It comes out of a strong tradition of vocational training in Europe and elsewhere that just doesn't exist here. The fact that one can "complete" their K-12 education with neither a marketable skill or prepared for post-secondary is baffling to the European firms we work with. All graduating from high school in America demonstrates is you can sit still for 75 minutes at a time.

[A HERETIC I AM]

7. Nicely put.

I had a public school education (graduated in 1977) and I have to say the products of the current system are badly educated, as a general rule.

I remember President Clinton putting forward the idea that instead of K-12 education, it should be a K-14 system, with the last two years being either 2 years of Junior College or two years of a vocational school. Unfortunately, the idea never went anywhere. It should have.

This country is in serous need of qualified Machinists and Welders as well as numerous other skills companies like the ones mentioned in the OP need, yet we have cut programs like Wood Shop, Metal Shop, Auto Shop and others from High School. Programs that were plentiful when I went to public schools in the USA.