Page 50 - Careers & Stuff 2021

I will take her or him to an employer who can match that interest,” he
says. “Even an art student might find a career in landscape architecture a rewarding one.” And that experienced worker wishing to change fields might be able to find a comparable-level
job in construction, Capodanno says. For example, someone with a small- business background may be able
to transfer to becoming a project manager in construction.
But it is the apprenticeship program — a practice that dates back to the Middle Ages — that is the backbone to the Delaware construction trade. A registered apprentice is sponsored by an employer who pays the new worker for wages earned during the day while sponsoring their classroom education in the evenings as an “earn while you learn” model.
In Delaware, there are currently 370 different employers with a least one registered apprentice, and
there are more than 1,500 registered apprentices on the job at any one time. The diversity of jobs is illustrated by the fact that there are more than 20 different trades or occupations involved, with the top five by numbers being electricians (who made $58,462 on average in Delaware in 2019);
the combined fields of plumbers, pipefitters and steamfitters ($62,892); HVAC ($52,469); sheet metal workers ($60,365); and construction laborers ($37,361).
Advanced Manufacturing, Logistics and Hospitality
Among the other Delaware industries that have strong job needs are advanced manufacturing, logistics and hospitality.
Think of advanced manufacturing
as being the opposite of craft manufacturing: an industry where innovative, cutting-edge technology is used to improve the production of any product. In many ways, the industry is defined by how it produces as much as by what it produces.
Nevertheless, there are industries that specialize in advanced manufacturing, including composite materials, 3D printing methods and software, electronics, biopharmaceutical and biomaterials production, and the manufacture of quantum materials. Computer skills
come into play here, so job applicants who are proficient not only in programming but even in game playing are usually good candidates.
But getting good workers is not easy, according to Michael Quaranta, president of the Delaware State Chamber of Commerce, which has
a subsidiary called the Delaware Manufacturing Association. “We need to have an employer-led initiative to develop a common platform where we could train, say, 57,000 computer- education workers.”
For job seekers, this means that well-honed computer skills can go a long way to landing a job in advanced manufacturing. Nonprofits and training facilities all across Delaware offer classes to do just that. (See page 50 for more.)
The field of logistics, meanwhile, is often associated only with the trucking and transportation industry. But while the physical movement of goods is certainly a key role, logistics also means getting things ready to ship
at the point of origin, unloading them at the point of delivery and getting them to the final customer. So logistics jobs can be as diverse as working in an Amazon fulfillment facility, driving
a UPS delivery van, unloading a
ship carrying Dole fruit from Central America, loading automobiles headed for Europe at the Port of Wilmington or distributing auto parts to regional service centers.
In short, jobs in logistics involve assembling and storing, packing and transporting, unpacking and delivery. And it’s not just the physical act of doing it, but planning how it can be done efficiently.
One of the primary local job training and placement companies for transport drivers is the American Driver Training Academy in New Castle, which prepares students to earn their passport to trucking — the commercial driver’s license or CDL — within as little as four weeks. The company also has part- time training programs at night and on weekends for those who are switching
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