Even as new local manufacturers – including the just-announced Vista Metals and the giant-sized Envision AESC battery plant – begin their search for employees, a regional coalition has started surveying manufacturers in a 10-county area to assess their workforce needs and plan for the future.

The Southcentral Kentucky Regional Development Authority (SCKRDA) is conducting the survey in collaboration with Dr. Audrey Theis, an education and workforce consultant who did a similar survey for the Bowling Green Area Chamber of Commerce 11 years ago.

“Some years ago, we got grant funding from the state and brought in Theis to do a study,” said Ron Bunch, president and CEO of the Bowling Green chamber. “The study was already projecting a shortage of manufacturing workers.

“This will be an update of that report from 2013. It will look at what demand for workers looks like now and how stakeholders are aligned to meet the demand.”

Bunch said the survey has been sent to more than 600 manufacturing facilities employing approximately 26,000 people.

In a news release, he said the survey is designed to “aggregate the voice of manufacturers to help shape the education and training, workforce development, and talent sourcing needed to meet the growing needs of our regional manufacturers.”

It’s an opportune time to conduct such a study, Bunch believes, because of the continuing growth of an already-robust manufacturing sector in the region.

“Manufacturing makes up about 19% of the region’s employment base and accounts for 26% of all wages,” Bunch said. “That’s about twice the national average.”

And that robust manufacturing sector is only going to grow larger, based on recent developments.

Just last week, California-based Vista Metals announced plans to purchase 100 acres in the Kentucky Transpark industrial park and build a 75,000-square-foot plant that will eventually employ more than 50 workers.

Vista Metals has been producing specialty aluminum products since 1968 and specializes in products supporting aerospace, commercial aircraft, defense and automotive manufacturers.

Its location in the Transpark will only add to the demand for workers that is being fueled largely by the Envision AESC plant being built now in that industrial park.

Bunch said Envision AESC, which will make batteries for electric vehicles and other products, is on target to begin production in the summer of 2025. When fully operational, the 1.6 million-square-foot plant is expected to employ more than 2,000 people.

Such developments only heighten the need to conduct a study of the region’s manufacturing sector and its needs, reasons SCKRDA Chairman and Warren County Judge-Executive Doug Gorman.

“We are deeply committed to leveraging the insights from this study to drive meaningful collaboration within our community,” Gorman said in a news release. “It is essential that we address the challenges highlighted in the previous report and work collectively to develop innovative solutions that will strengthen our manufacturing workforce.”

Bunch expects the new survey to reveal what types of manufacturing positions are most in demand so training and education programs can then be tailored to address the need.

Training is more urgent now than in the past, Bunch says, because the nature of manufacturing jobs is changing.

“Jobs in manufacturing are way more technologically advanced than people realize,” he said. “The network of opportunities is far better than people realize.”