October 05, 2012

One of the announcements that came out of the recent ISA Automation Week meeting in Orlando was a new agreement between that organization and Maverick Technologies. One of the major components of that agreement is workforce development that aims at drawing more young people into engineering in general and automation in particular.

The attached video is a 10-minute chat with Paul Galeski, CEO of Maverick Technologies. If you don’t mind the peculiarities of recording via Skype, he makes the case for trying to create a greater sense of intentionality to draw people into automation. As he says, “People come to automation somewhat accidently.”

One of the major directions of this program in the long term is to build a suitable education curriculum around automation, so it can become a track in a larger engineering program. Creating a path to bring people in is only half the battle. Galeski also recognizes that companies have to keep that path going once people come into the business. If you want the best and brightest in your company, there have to be ways to keep them engaged in the plant without necessarily having to move into management or another company in search of greater opportunity.

In the video, Galeski says he is interested in hearing from companies that have suggestions or are struggling with workforce issues. Collaboration can go a long way to advancing the larger program. Reach him at paul.galeski@mavtechglobal.com

Peter Welander, pwelander(at)cfemedia.com