March 19, 2022

R&D/Leverage attended the Career Expo Day, February 9th at State-Tech in Linn Missouri. The Career Expo provides employers like R&D/Leverage the opportunity to visit with students about full time employment and internships available at various organizations with nearly 300 employers exhibiting. This comes at a time where manufacturing jobs are plenty, while getting youth interested is a challenge.

Description automatically generated R&D/Leverage USA, headquartered in Lee’s Summit Missouri offers both packaging solutions and mold manufacturing capabilities services to the food and beverage, home and personal care and healthcare industries. With over 200 employees both in the US and UK, the company is looking to bring interest to the young adults in the area looking for a great career without having to invest in college debt. There is a skills gap in this country across many manufacturing sectors, and with that brings great opportunities for young adults looking to start, discover or even create new careers they may not know existed.

States Paul Wellener, Vice Chairman and U.S. Industrial Products and Construction Leader, Deloitte LLP, “The US manufacturing skills gap could leave as many as 2.1 million jobs that may go unfilled by 2030, Deloitte and The Manufacturing Institute study finds. “Given the foundational role the manufacturing sector plays in our nation’s economy – at a time when jobs are in such high demand nationwide, the number of vacant entry-level manufacturing positions continues to grow.” R&D/Leverage finds itself no different than any other manufacturing company when it comes to finding young adults who may not even know R&D/Leverage exist in the great area of Lee’s Summit Missouri, let alone have any knowledge of the great career opportunities they may offer. The issue of getting young adults interested in careers in manufacturing start at home and at school and start with companies like RD/Leverage reaching out in as many ways possible like the career fair, offering apprentice programs, and more.

Dave Taylor, VP of Organizational Development and Planning stated, “There seems to be a lack of interest in “blue collar” jobs, as most education systems heavily promote 4-year colleges and don’t appear to have the interest or funding to do the same for the manufacturing trades.” He continues “Encourage your kids to find a trade school program that will provide them opportunities to get industry certifications and real-world experience, through internships. That is why at R&D/Leverage we are using our promotion of the industry and its offering through career fairs, internships, tours, and collaborations with high schools and trade schools.” Regarding the Career Expo Day at State-Tech in Linn Missouri.

“It was a very positive experience for us,” States Jeff Cooper, VP of manufacturing for R&D/Leverage. “State Tech has an awesome campus and Precision Machining program where we met many aspiring machinists who are very excited about their future in the trade.” Jeff continues, “We had the opportunity to share our message that Machining is an excellent choice of trades and R&D/Leverage is a great place to work, It was the beginning of what will be a long fulfilling relationship with a lot of people.”

Jeff continued with, “Machinist for example, is a great fit for people who enjoy technology but also like to create and build things with their hands. It’s a position where you can feel a real sense of accomplishment and often see a project through from prototyping to the finished product.” He continues, “As far as long-term views in this business, at R&D/Leverage over the years some of its own machinists have become CEO, Director of quality assurance, Engineering manager, Mold designer and more. There are many opportunities for growth, we just need to get more young adults in here to look and learn more about us!” Jeff concluded.

R&D/Leverage always opens its doors for tours and takes time with those who may have little or no knowledge of what it is we do or who we are or what a career in manufacturing looks like and continues to participate in many local high school tours of the facility.

R&D/Leverage USA, headquartered in Missouri, services the food and beverage, home and personal care, and healthcare industries. R&D/Leverage USA offers both packaging solutions and mold manufacturing capabilities. Packaging solutions capabilities are concept development, validation, and implementation. Mold manufacturing capabilities include full mold manufacturing for PET tooling, IBM tooling, injection molds, as well as unit tool development, testing, validation, and training.

R&D/Leverage Europe is recognized as one of the world’s leading suppliers of single stage tooling, and supplies bottles and jars in PET. Services include product evaluation, tooling design, tooling manufacture, and technical service assistance. The company also has on-site injection stretch blow molding machines (ISBM), from which the company offers pilot tooling, material trials, color trials, and production tool qualification.

For more information, visit www.rdleverage.com or email [email protected].