A Sign Manufacturing Education Day Recap

For years, we’ve heard the narrative that American manufacturing is dead. Cheaper labor and materials costs led many business leaders to assume production overseas would generate more profit. According to www.innovationfiles.org, the U.S. economy lost approximately one-third of its jobs during the 2000s. The anecdotes of entire towns having their economies crippled by factory shutdowns tear at the soul. And, in a more pragmatic sense, if a society doesn’t control its means of production, it’s at the mercy of those who do, and of the cost, logistics and delivery of necessary goods.
The production of signage recounts a different story. Granted, an increasing number of materials and components used to fabricate signage is sourced from overseas. But, production is, the overwhelming majority of the time, handled domestically.
Still, the sign industry is adversely impacted by the ongoing technical “skills gap”. As No Child Left Behind and other education initiatives have left educators and administrators with a laser-beam focus on getting kids prepared for college, vocational education has lagged as an academic priority. In an August 2 article on dailykos.com, author Mark E. Andersen recalled, “Between the attacks on public education and the well-meaning emphasis on academics due to the federal No Child Left Behind initiative, which has induced high schools to shift resources toward core subject areas of math and reading, shop classes like machining, welding, and robotics are being crowded out. The very classes that allowed me to actually understand the Pythagorean Theorem or Newton’s Third Law are the very classes that are on the chopping block.”
Sensing the importance of conveying to young people searching for careers the viability of manufacturing in general and signmaking in particular, the Intl. Sign Assn. (ISA) partnered with the National Assn. of Mfg. (NAM) to launch Sign Manufacturing Education Day. For the past three years, the event has taken place on the first Friday in October.
Industry participation has grown each year. According to Sandy Smith, ISA’s communications consultant, eight shops with 12 locations participated in the inaugural event, and attracted a reported 200 to 300 students. Last year, engagement grew to 16 locations in 20 shops, with approximately 1,000 students in attendance. For this year’s edition, 34 shops in 42 locations took part. This year’s final tally was pending confirmation from ISA officials, but Smith anticipated roughly 2,100 would participate.
ST Publisher/Editor Wade Swormstedt and I traveled south to Versailles, KY’s Ruggles Sign Co. for their Education Day activities.
Twenty students from Versailles’ Woodford Co. High School attended. Most were involved in the school’s business-education program and/or marketing club. (As an aside, they were well-dressed, well-spoken, and attentive, and didn’t spend the duration clinging to their smartphones – all of which enhanced my faith in the next generation). Ruggles co-owners Tim and Anna Cambron provided an overview of the industry and their shop, and several employees discussed some intricacies of design, project management, permitting and overall workflow.
I received additional feedback from two other shops that conducted Education Day events: Linda Hardebeck, who works at Green Sign Co. (Greensburg, IN) with her son, Shawn, said Green hosted approximately 70 students, with a reporter from the local newspaper and Melanie Douglas, a representative from U.S. Sen. Joe Donnelly’s (D) office, in attendance. Ben Ziglin, president of Washington, MO-based Ziglin Signs, said his shop invited the Four Rivers Career Center, a nearby trade and vocational school. Approximately 115 Four Rivers students, most of whom are enrolled in its graphics-communication and welding programs, attended.
“We talked about how their [skills] are used in our industry, and stressed the importance of a good work ethic and doing what you love in your chosen career,” Ziglin said.
With ongoing technological evolution and increasingly creative applications, it’s an exciting time to work in the sign industry. And, it’s an ideal time to bring the next generation of welders, metalworkers, print technicians, graphic designers and more into the fold. I’ll cover Sign Manufacturing Education Day in greater depth in ST’s November Editorially Speaking column, but, for now, I’d like to say thanks to ISA for creating this initiative, and to all the shops that took part. The importance of getting future generation workers excited about sign-industry opportunities can’t be overstated.