Particularly in a tight economy everyone wants to know where the jobs are and where they’re going to be for the next decade or so. Material handling and the related fields of logistics and warehousing are growth industries that offer good job potential now and into the future. International development is predicted to drive 5% annual growth in the worldwide material handling industry for each of the next five years (see our Sept. 22 post). In the U.S. retiring baby boomers are creating critical worker shortages in logistics and warehousing. However, automation and increasingly sophisticated technology are also creating a need for more highly skilled and more highly educated workers.
While the value of experiential education is still recognized, a bachelor’s degree is the new entre into a professional career; and a master’s degree, the ticket to climbing the career ladder, according to Mike Ensby of Clarkson University’s Engineering & Global Operations Management Department. “The three most important credentialing letters today seem to be ‘MBA,'” he said in a recent interview with Modern Materials Handling, particularly if you’re aiming for the boardroom.
Companies do still hire people right out of high school, and many professionals who began their own careers that way seem to place greater value on certified skills than college degrees. But material handling is in a state of transition. Industry experts say the drive to automation and integrated systems will increasingly demand a workforce with advanced technical skills. Tomorrow’s warehouse worker is more apt to operate a computer than a forklift.
In the coming decade, high school grads may find themselves stuck in a career track that rarely rises above skilled labor, such as order fulfillment. “Going into the future, not many people will have much success in their career progression without professional development of some kind,” Ensby said.
Next time: What courses will catapult your material handling career to success? What will employers be looking for?