The MHI Career and Technical Education (CTE) program, in partnership with Dr. David DeLong of Smart Workforce Solutions, has released a new white paper addressing the skills gap in the supply chain workforce.

The paper was first issued at the 2017 MHI Annual Conference, in the Innovative Workforce Solutions panel, co-produced with the National Center for Supply Chain Automation (NCSCA).

"MHI's members have identified the shortage in skilled labour as a critical impact factor affecting their companies' performance," says Patrick Davison, MHI's Director of Education and Standards. "Dr. DeLong's paper outlines tangible steps that companies can take to attract, train and retain employees with the skills employers in the supply chain are demanding."

The paper outlines initiatives that have been launched by companies and educators to implement internship and training programs from scratch to address talent shortages in the supply chain. The paper outlines four case studies and identifies 13 critical steps for implementing effective partnerships between companies and schools.

It notes that collaborations between companies and local schools have shown to be an effective method of identifying the skills employers require of their employees, while helping schools set a curriculum that can help to get their students hired upon graduation.

It concludes that the race to develop the future supply chain workforce is well under way.

The white paper can be downloaded for free at http://www.mhi.org/conference/downloads/SupplyChainWorkforceWhitePaperWeb.pdf.