Skilled Production Worker / Operator

Back to the list of jobs

Examples of positions:

Production Worker, Production Line Operator, Machine Operator

Change in future demand for this occupational group:

Trends in demand for this occupational group:

The demand for skilled production workers is changing radically, the change being speeded up by the economic crisis. In the last three months of 2008 the previously rapid increase in the demand stopped and, at the beginning of 2009, companies began to lay off people – particularly those in manual jobs. The fall in demand for manual workers will continue to be fuelled by structural changes in the electrical engineering industry that will result in reducing the scope of assembling operations. Skilled manual workers will, for some time, be able to perform jobs in small batch manufacturing and as part of manufacturing projects where certain flexibility in terms of skills is required and where the scope of automation is limited. Over the long term, demand for skilled workers will experience a steeper decline as services and research begin to gain in importance at the expense of manufacturing and as the importance of software outweighs that of hardware in product handling. 

Skill needs required:

The main requirement for these positions results from the need for smooth, efficient and good-quality manufacturing/assembly. This entails the understanding of tasks to be carried out, manual dexterity, sufficient performance levels, accuracy, and the capacity to solve uncomplicated problems.  The capacity to understand technical documentation is also required, and the importance of computer skills has risen since recently. Language skills are only required in exceptional cases.

Employment opportunities for production workers will dwindle. The workers will therefore be forced to enhance their qualifications – either to acquire a technical or servicing specialisation, or a specialisation in customer support, trade, logistics, etc.

Summary of present and future requirements:

	ICT	Sales, marketing, law		Processes, management, organization		Soft skills
Current relevancy of skills
Future relevancy of skills

Print this page