Inland Empire ATL Regional Director Larry McLaughlin recently spoke with students from Arroyo and Cajon High Schools about logistics career opportunities in Southern California and beyond as part of a project between Amazon and CSU San Bernardino to expand the region’s pool of logistics talent and build career pathways for students.
The “What Are Your Plans” webinar was organized and hosted by the Leonard Transportation Center at CSU San Bernardino and covered labor market trends, local job opportunities, and how automation will continue to change the logistics job market for years to come.
McLaughlin spoke about the trends in logistics and supply chain management that may impact the lower skill, lower paid positions such as automating freight handling and autonomous vehicle delivery. He also addressed how community colleges are adapting courses and degree programs to meet these changing workforce needs and how a community college education can benefit students in the logistics industry.
“I not only described the technical programs that could prepare them for opportunities being created by automation, but I also spoke about the two-year degree programs that prepare them for management positions or for transfer to a four-year program,” McLaughlin said. Technical programs in the region’s community colleges highlighted by McLaughlin include electrical, programmable logic control, information technology, cybersecurity, and more.
Taking another step in developing career pathways to meet the region’s growing need for skilled logistics workers, McLaughlin is coordinating the planning of an Industry Roundtable to engage logistics and supply chain employers in a dialogue on middle-skill training needs. The Inland Empire Economic Partnership and a team of contract and community education directors in the region are partners in this effort — a testament to the fact that many stakeholders need to be involved to make the most of the Inland Empire’s recent logistics boom.
“If successful, we’ll be creating a stepping-stone for young people in the industry to move up to higher paid, higher responsibility positions in the region’s logistics companies,” McLaughlin said.
