The workforce of skilled tradescritical to keeping the country’s infrastructure and economy running, is rapidly declining.

While many companies are working to deal with the shortage, General Motors has invested hundreds of millions of dollars to build its own pipeline of future workers.

Over the past five years alone, the automaker has invested more than $242 million in its skilled trades apprenticeship program, which is geared toward training the next generation of skilled trade professionals with a combination of classroom instruction and thousands of hours of hands-on experience at a GM facility, said Michael Trevorrow, FOXturing’s senior vice president of Global Manufacturing.

Apprentices will spend up to 672 hours of classroom-related technical instruction and approximately 7,920 hours of on-the-job training with an assigned qualified tradesperson. Areas of program focus include a die maker, electrician, experimental fitter inspector, experimental laboratory paint technician, millwright, metal modeler, wood modeler, shaper, pipe fitter, tool maker, and machine repair.

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In fact, the apprenticeship program is where Trevorrow got his start in the industry. The executive went from being a die-cut apprentice to overseeing all of GM’s manufacturing operations worldwide. Many others are following in their footsteps, with 600 apprentices graduating from the program each year, according to Trevorrow.

At the end of the course, participants will obtain a journeyman card, which is an official credential that shows someone has completed an apprenticeship and is now fully qualified to work in a skilled trade without direct supervision. Veterans entering the program can complete the program in a shorter period of time given their prior knowledge.

Michael Trevorrow, GM’s senior vice president of global manufacturing, is adjusting part of a metal mold to fit the matching upper part exactly. (General Motors)

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Trevorrow said participants not only start with the internship and schooling simultaneously, but they also get paid.

“It’s an investment in the future,” Trevorrow said. “It’s not what you need tomorrow. It’s kind of what you predict you’ll need for the next 10 years.”

It comes at a time when the US is struggling to amass a skilled workforce. Part of the problem is that there is an increase in workers retiring and not enough young workers to replace them.

Georgetown University in September published a report, “Leaving Behind: How Skills Shortages Threaten Future Jobs,” highlighting persistent skills shortages in critical occupations in the U.S. economy due to unmet demand for workers with post-secondary credentials associated with needed skills.

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From 2024 to 2032, about 18.4 million experienced workers with postsecondary education are expected to retire. That’s more than the 13.8 million younger workers who will enter the workforce with an equivalent educational qualification, according to the report.

The U.S. economy is expected to add 685,000 new jobs requiring postsecondary education and training during the same period.

The National Association of Manufacturers, The Manufacturing Institute and Deloitte estimated in a 2021 report that the nation’s manufacturing skills gap could result in 2.1 million unfilled jobs by 2030, costing the economy potentially $1 trillion.

Over the past five years alone, General Motors has invested more than $242 million in its skilled trades apprenticeship program. (General Motors)

“Given the critical role that the manufacturing sector plays in our nation’s economy, it is deeply troubling that at a time when jobs are in such high demand across the country, the number of vacant entry-level manufacturing positions continues to grow,” Paul Wellener, Deloitte’s then-vice president and U.S. industrial products and construction leader, said in the study.

But General Motors doesn’t just target adults or veterans leaving the armed forces. A big part of their effort is exposing younger generations to this kind of work. General Motors volunteers will go into their communities and introduce children ages kindergarten through 12th grade to the wide range of career paths available in automotive manufacturing.

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This includes carrying groups of students through their plants to show them what modern manufacturing looks like, or as Trevorrow describes it, thousands of robots “working like a symphony.” GM employees also visit schools to help students with engineering projects, including building model cars.

The goal is to teach them about quality, standardized work, standardized processes and problem solving, according to Trevorrow.

Workers assemble chassis parts for vehicle frames at the General Motors assembly plant in Fort Wayne, Indiana. (Emily Elconin/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

General Motors is also improving its current workforce through its Technical Learning University. It trains around 2,500 employees a year.

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The Technical Learning University is created so that workers can try new technologies in a practical way. The training center includes real systems that match what employees use on the plants, so they can practice in a safe learning environment. GM brings people from plants across North America to a facility with a subject matter expert to guide the process.

“As the technology improves, we try to step everyone up to that new technology so we can take advantage of it and use it to create more quality in our vehicles, do it more efficiently, which ends up being good for the customer,” Trevorrow said.