Ken Schneider has always liked to work with his hands – he looked up to his father who worked long days on a dairy farm and later became a general contractor.

Schneider, 48, learned early on the value and return that hard, manual work got him.

“I worked with him as much as I could,” Schneider said.

He said when he was 18, he and his father ran a power equipment sales and repair business and later was a firefighter.

“Growing up with somebody that was always a hands-on worker instilled in me that that’s the way to go,” Schneider said.

He has turned that lifelong passion into a career and is working to set himself from the pack as manufacturers flock to Arizona. They need to fill an ever-growing workforce demand to keep their factories running, and they’re turning to three Arizona colleges for qualified workers.

Schneider is in his third semester, just over halfway through Central Arizona College’s Advanced Industrial Technology Program.  He’d worked in similar jobs before, but after seeing more and more industry, like Lucid Motors, come to the Casa Grande area, he figured he wasn’t getting any younger and needed to take an opportunity to further his career. That’s when he found Central Arizona College.

The college is one of several working together to fill a growing demand for manufacturing labor. This line of work and the program was a perfect fit for Schneider, as it provided flexibility for his schedule and was heavily hands-on.

“I’m more of a doer than a thinker,” Schneider said.

“I love to work with my hands, and with a lot of the industry looking at this program and looking for employees, I thought it was a really good fit for me.”

Students like Schneider who finish the manufacturing program are walking into an area that, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, is expected to grow by 16% from 2014 to 2024, and has the potential to continue to grow beyond that. The classes are a mix of hands-on and online classes, which teach students to install, repair and troubleshoot all sorts of machinery found on the floors of factories throughout the state and across the country.

Schneider is one of the older students in the program and said while class sizes are smaller, to help teachers give more attention to each student, it attracts people from all backgrounds. That’s where Sandra Zires, outreach coordinator for the program, comes in.

Zires works with local high schools to find and keep students in the program, people that are interested in factory work or more applicable experience for an engineering career. A good number of them are older, like Schneider, looking to set themselves apart from their colleagues, but there is a growing number of students who are younger and looking to break into the field.

“A lot of the students come from industry, but they might be at a lower level within manufacturing,” Zires said. “There are also just hands-on students coming out of high school and they find out about some of the local manufacturers and how much they pay and so they’re attracted to the program.”

The program has 60 students and there’s a waiting list every semester and may soon expand. Students who enroll and earn a spot, Zires said, can get various certificates and an associate’s degree of applied science that they can then take to Northern Arizona University to earn a bachelor’s degree.

The certifications students earn comply with the National Institute for Metalworking Skills, an industry-recognized credentialing body. It’s a useful, nationally recognized certification to have that enables students to work practically anywhere around the country that follows those standards.

School staff helps them find jobs with local employers like Intel, Frito Lay, Daisy Brand, Lucid Motors, Franklin Foods and several others hungry for fresh, qualified workers.

Students are often hired before they complete all of the courses in the program, and usually earn between $18 and $22 an hour, but within a year can earn an average of $25 per hour.

This effort all started back in June 2011 when President Obama kick-started the Advanced Manufacturing Partnership, which aimed to revamp manufacturing across the country. Seven years later, the state gave Central Arizona College a $650,000 grant to bolster its manufacturing program and help fill the shortage of people skilled in advanced manufacturing.

The college works with Pima Community College and Mesa Community College through what’s called the Arizona Advanced Technology Corridor program, to help companies fill their factories with local talent. They’ve also structured their programs similarly, so that a student can start at one college and finish at another, closer to a prospective employer.

Greg Wilson, dean of Pima Community College’s Applied Technology Program, helped craft the corridor program, which initially focused on automation and robotics in manufacturing facilities between Phoenix, Casa Grande and Tucson. Now the program is looking to expand, Wilson said, into what will be called the “Arizona Advanced Technology Network,” because other areas and schools want in.

Crafting the program was a very delicate and intricate process, Wilson said. He and participating college staff met with several dozen employers and asked for their needs to compile an in-depth examination of their skillsets and the expected workforce demands.

Those employers and other partners sit on an industry advisory committee that updates the schools on the skills and knowledge needed to work in their factories to help keep the classes as current as possible. And this collaborative program not only prepares students for work in advanced manufacturing, Wilson said, it also gives them a broad and valuable education that can help them find a career in many different related industries.

“We’re building what we call super technicians, or super techs because they can cross into so many different areas,” Wilson said. “Employers are always going to mold an employee in their fashion. We’re providing them with the skillsets, the creative thinking and the ability to innovate what’s going to be helpful to an employer.”

While many big names like Lucid Motors, Nikola Motors and Raytheon Missile Systems look to break ground for new facilities across the state, Wilson said he and the other participating colleges are doing everything they can to prepare students. Students don’t even have to wait until after high school; students can earn credit from participating college programs through dual enrollment partnerships.

Schnieder wishes he had had the same opportunities earlier on. He would have jumped on it, and he worries many high schoolers aren’t taking enough time to consider their options and plan for their future.

For so long, Schnieder said, there’s been a prevalent push for higher education that’s taken attention away from valuable, viable and rewarding vocational careers. But, just like college, it’s not for everyone, he said, and young people should keep their options open so as to not waste an opportunity to live happily and comfortably.

Once Schnieder completes the program and earns his associate’s degree, he said, he’s well on his way to better things.

“It will definitely open up a lot of opportunities for me, not only with my employer but with other employers,” Schnieder said. “Getting into the program alone, having that, I think a lot of the bigger employers in the area look at that and they’ll definitely pull a prospective candidate from there rather than off the street. I’ve already come across several opportunities since I’ve been enrolled.”