Fred Emanuel, founder and owner of Emanuel Engineering in Stratham, has some advice when it comes to STEM education and training future workers for careers in advanced manufacturing or engineering.

“We’ve found that the most important part of the program is getting someone at a young age, showing them opportunities and find out if they are interested,” said Emamuel, who serves on the advisory board of Seacoast School of Technology in Exeter, which is on the front lines of science, technology, engineering, mathematics efforts at the high school level.

The shortage of qualified workers continues to plague New Hampshire’s advanced manufacturing sector.

“The pool of skilled workers is pretty shallow and it’s an ongoing concern,” said Jim Roche, president of the Business and Industry Association of New Hampshire.

Along with high energy costs, an adequately trained workforce is a top priority for BIA members, Roche said. There’s been no shortage of efforts at multiple levels between the private sector, high schools and technical-focused schools, community colleges and four-year colleges.

“I think there is progress and we see some pretty good successes. At the community college level, students are getting work experience and get paid while their prospective employers can see their skills and work ethic,” Roche said.

The lack of a qualified and motivated workforce is a national issue.

“There are hundreds of thousands of ‘middle skill’ jobs in the United States that are – or soon will be – going unfilled because of a dearth of qualified workers,” said researchers Katherine S. Newman and Hella Winston in a recent New York Times opinion column on the topic. “Employers complain that electricians, pipe fitters, advanced manufacturing machinists, brick masons and radiology technicians are scarce. More than 600,000 jobs remain open in the manufacturing sector alone. These are jobs that provide a middle-class wage without a traditional four-year college degree.”

Newman and Winston said part of the problem is policy and culture.

“American high schools once offered top-notch vocational and apprenticeship training, preparing young people for jobs like these,” they said. “But over the last 70 years, our commitment to such education has waxed and waned, reflecting the country’s ambivalence about the role of school in preparing young people for employment and the value of blue-collar work itself.”

The issue in New Hampshire isn’t one of effort at the top levels.

“New Hampshire is facing strong demographic headwinds,” said Ed McKay, former chancellor of the University System of New Hampshire who came out of retirement to head the Higher Education Commission division at the state Department of Education. His office is focused on public education improvement and innovation to bolster to state’s workforce development and economic growth needs. McKay said the state’s population is aging, which could impede economic growth in part because of a declining K-12 population and a population that is increasingly lower income.

“This is a historically serious issue that requires business and education leaders to be proactive,” he said.

Among many programs and groups working on workforce education initiatives – including the Governor’s STEM Education Task Force and the Advanced Manufacturing Education Council – McKay said the Coalition for Business and Education launched a new effort called 65 x 25 that will focus on an admittedly lofty goal: to insure 65 percent of the state’s 25- to 64-year-old population holds a high-quality postsecondary credential or degree by 2025. McKay said the current figure is around 50 percent holding degrees and certificates and 65 x 25 is designed as a strategy to push the pace of STEM education and workforce training.

“It’s an aggressive goal and we especially want a target group of adults 25 to 45 to get certificate training or earn a degree and stay in the state,” he said. “We believe it will also encourage more schools and colleges to link individuals with job opportunities.”

In a survey for the Advanced Manufacturing Education Council, manufacturing industry respondents in New Hampshire listed a range of deficient skills – from problem solving to motivation and basic math skills to work ethic. Getting teens or young adults excited about manufacturing careers is easier said than done.

Margaret Callahan, principal at Seacoast School of Technology, has been on the front lines of STEM initiatives and workforce training for most of her career. STEM issues have been around with different names and priorities for decades, said Callahan, who is a member of the Advanced Manufacturing Education Council.

“Employers have always needed kids with good skills and there used to be a pipeline from high school to good manufacturing jobs,” she said.

There’s no shortage of workforce training and technology-driven programs for SST’s 700-plus students, such as pre-engineering and computer sciences and welding, trained instructors with industry-relevant experience or local companies that work with SST such as Liberty Mutual, Lindt, Novel Iron Works and Sig Sauer to name a few.

“We are mandated to work with industry,” Callahan said. “If we are training students to properly use a manufacturing alignment machine or how to use biotech equipment, if we aren’t up to current industry standards, we are doing the students a disservice.”

Callahan believes it’s important to target the expectations of parents.

“This isn’t the 1980s,” she said. “I believe the days are over when it’s assumed everybody should go to college and then on to a job. There needs to be a change of mindset about vocational or technical schools and parents should take a realistic look at job opportunities. And listen to their kids. If they want to be a welder or work in composites those are good careers.

Students can continue their education at other levels or in other fields. A recent SST collaboration with Great Bay Community College for an 18-credit adult certification program in welding technology was sold out.

For the 11th straight year, the Exeter Area Women’s Club hosted its STEM-focused event “Expanding Your Horizons” for girls in grades 6-8 at the Cooperative Middle School in Stratham.

“The first year we didn’t know who if anyone would come,” event organizer Karen Stroup said of the all-day conference with 19 workshops. The girls hear from volunteer instructors about their careers.

“We hope they get excited and take more of the classes in high school,” Stroup said, adding the most recent conference in May overflowed with 250 girls and many girls come all three years.