Rapidly changing technology is challenging trade schools to keep pace as they train the next generation of skilled workers.

The demand for skilled workers has never been higher. An estimated 18.4 million experienced workers with postsecondary education are expected to retire by 2032, according to a 2025 study by the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce. Meanwhile, only 13.8 million younger workers are expected to enter the labor market during the same period, leaving an obvious gap.

Some of those jobs require a bachelor’s degree and others may be offset by the increasing use of artificial intelligence. But demand remains strong for skilled workers in the trades and advanced manufacturing.

Even implementation of President Donald Trump’s administration’s AI Action Plan, which calls for construction and maintenance of a vast AI infrastructure and the energy needed to power it, will require an estimated 140,000 additional skilled trades workers beyond what the nation currently has, according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

“Data centers will not be wired, cooled or commissioned without electricians, pipe fitters, HVAC technicians, welders and laborers,” a CSIS report stated.

The nation’s shortage of skilled workers includes advanced manufacturing.

David Hockenberry, an instructor in the advanced manufacturing and robotics technology program at Butler County Area Vocational-Technical School, feels that pressure at the local level. He currently has 35 students in his program, but estimates he could place 200 graduates with area employers.

“If we had 200 kids in here, we could place 200 of them every year,” Hockenberry said. “I have to say ‘no’ so much. Half my job is, ‘Nope, nope. Don’t have anybody right now.’”

Hockenberry acknowledged the program doesn’t have space to accommodate 200 students.

“I don’t know if we have room for 200, but I could do a hundred,” he said. “And that would make the Butler County manufacturers very happy if I did.”

A graduate of a vocational-technical program himself, Hockenberry spent 25 years working in manufacturing before turning to teaching. During that time, he experienced the industry’s shift from manual machines to automation with computer numerical control (CNC) machines.

“The industry since the ’90s has completely changed,” he said. “You walk into a shop now, there’s maybe one or two manual machines and everything’s automated.”

The advanced manufacturing program at Butler vo-tech includes several CNC machines. Because they are expensive to purchase — and costly to repair if damaged — students first learn the basics on manual machines. Tabletop versions of the equipment in classrooms allow students to make mistakes without serious consequences.

“If you crash them, it really doesn’t hurt anything,” Hockenberry said.

Butler vo-tech programs rely on occupational advisory committees to ensure they are teaching skills employers actually need. For the advanced manufacturing program, the committee includes local manufacturers such as Oberg, Penn United Technologies and Chick Machine Company, where Hockenberry worked for 14 years.

“We’re not getting our curriculum from a book,” he said. “We’re getting our curriculum from Oberg, Penn United, Chick Machines. They are telling us, ‘Hey, we need this. We need this. We need this.’”

Graduates often go on to apprenticeship programs or additional training at trade schools or community colleges. Hockenberry said the skills students learn are transferable across multiple career paths, including manufacturing, inspection and engineering.

“We do the best we can to replicate industry here, but you learn the basics here,” he said. “I know my first six months in co-op I learned more than I would have in 10 more years of vo-tech.”

Butler vo-tech also partners with Butler Technologies, providing the company with graphic design interns and graduates, said John Lowrey, the company’s chief manufacturing and quality officer. Butler Technologies is an engineering- and design-driven manufacturer specializing in printing, fabricating and assembling custom components.

“The Butler vo-tech is a special place,” Lowrey said. “I think it has been good in the past and it’s only gotten better.”

Students who continue their education at Butler County Community College may learn from Al Toohey, who teaches industrial electricity and maintenance, as well as a noncredit workforce development course for industrial equipment technicians. Toohey earned an electrical engineering degree and spent 42 years in manufacturing with employers such as U.S. Steel and Heinz.

Like Hockenberry, Toohey has witnessed dramatic technological change. Still, he emphasizes fundamentals and teaches students how to think through problems regardless of how advanced the equipment becomes.

“A lot of the basic information doesn’t change,” Toohey said. “Electricity is electricity and hydraulics is hydraulics. They get more automated, the high-end controls get more sophisticated, but you never get away from the basics. You always have to start there.”

That foundation includes reading schematics and understanding how machines operate, even if students have never seen the equipment before.

“They can look at things and recognize: That’s a motor starter. That’s a variable frequency drive. That’s an overload protection. That’s a circuit breaker,” he said. “And that goes a long way.”

Students in Butler vo-tech’s air conditioning and electrical program who pursue an associate degree at Rosedale Technical College in Pittsburgh may learn from Aaron Miller, an HVAC instructor and department head. Miller has 20 years of field experience in residential and small commercial heating and air conditioning, transport refrigeration and restaurant refrigeration.

Over the course of his career, HVAC systems have become far more computerized, automated and energy efficient, requiring complex programming and communication.

Students now must learn about connected devices and communication protocols such as Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, Zigbee, BACnet and Modbus. Training includes using smartphone and tablet apps to pair with and program furnaces and other equipment.

Digital connectivity allows technicians to access detailed event histories — including time, date and fault data — replacing older methods that required monitoring systems over time with a voltmeter.

“They need to learn all the communications protocol — how to communicate with the equipment,” Miller said.

Despite the technology, HVAC work still requires human judgment.

“You have all this equipment, but you still need to pay attention and touch, feel, smell,” he said.

Rosedale’s HVAC program relies heavily on industry contractors to identify critical skills. Twice a year, contractors advise the school on emerging trends, which are then incorporated into the curriculum. Beyond technical skills, employers increasingly value soft skills, such as accountability and follow-through.

“Lately, the technical skills are secondary to showing up early, doing what you say you’re going to do and not dropping the ball,” Miller said.

Students interested in becoming electricians can enroll in Rosedale’s industrial electricity program, led by instructor and department head Trevor Kurtz. Students can earn an associate degree in 16 months, specializing in industrial or construction electricity.

While students begin with the basics, they eventually apply the physics of electricity to motors and move into maintenance, pneumatics and high-level automation. For industrial electricity students, software simulation and advanced controllers are now standard, shifting instruction away from just “how to wire a house” to teaching “how to program and maintain a smart factory.”

Like other programs, the electrical curriculum is guided by an advisory board of local employers. Instructors meet twice a year with industry partners to ensure training aligns with real-world needs.

The insight is critical, Kurtz said, because schools must be careful when investing in expensive equipment that may not reflect current job requirements.

“So we have to really gauge how important this is to our students going out into the field,” he said. “That’s why those advisory board meetings become so important, because we can actually talk to people and ask, ‘Is this something that you need?’”

Despite the advanced technology, students are taught critical thinking and troubleshooting skills that machines can’t replace. Kurtz reminds students that their formal education doesn’t end after 16 months — it begins when they enter the workforce.

“I tell them all the time, that’s where your education really truly starts,” he said. “Now you’re going to take all the basic stuff that I taught you and you’re going to apply it.”

Despite growing automation and the rise of the “connected technician,” Miller doesn’t believe artificial intelligence will replace HVAC workers.

“The technology is going to change diagnosis a lot, but I don’t think it’s going to take out the human element,” he said.

Lowrey agrees. While AI may replace some coding tasks, he said it still can’t perform physical work well.

Toohey acknowledges AI’s impact but believes human hands and minds remain essential.

“AI still eventually needs humans,” he said. “It’s going to be a long, long time before you have a robot wiring your house or working on your car.”

Hockenberry teaches his students that artificial intelligence is simply another tool in advanced manufacturing.

“For us, AI is just another arrow in the quiver,” he said. “It doesn’t change what we do, but it changes how we approach problems sometimes.”

For now, trade schools continue blending new technology with foundational skills and human judgment. Their biggest challenge may be recruiting enough students to meet demand.

“The problem right now is, if you’re a manufacturer around here, you go buy a $200,000 robot and then you try to find someone to set that robot up,” Hockenberry said. “They exist, but they’re in such high demand … good luck finding somebody.”

This article originally appeared in the March edition of Butler County Business Matters.