Episode Transcript
Speaker 0 00:04 Make it right. The manufacturing podcast,
Speaker 1 00:09 the fourth industrial revolution is transforming the world of manufacturing and the job skills required are evolving too. With the rapid pace of change, it's hard to know what skills will be necessary in 10 years or even in two years. According to a 2018 skills gap study from Deloitte and the manufacturing Institute, it isn't a lack of jobs that manufacturing is facing. It's a lack of skilled workers to take on new and previously unknown roles. The study reveals that the skills gap may leave an estimated 2.4 million positions unfilled between 2018 and 2028 with a potential economic impact of <inaudible> two point 5 trillion. Further, the study shows that the positions relating to digital talent, skilled production, and operational managers may soon be three times as difficult to fill. It's clear that advanced technology and digital skills must blend with unique human skills to yield the highest level of product activity.
Speaker 1 01:10 So enter vocabulary. It's a skills discovery and training center founded by gene Sherman, which opened in October, 2013 in Riverside, California. It's goal is to help people find meaningful work by providing fundamental hands on skills training to effectively help solve the advanced manufacturing skills gap. And I'm really pleased to have gene Sherman as my guest on make it right. Hi gene. All right. Good morning. So thank you very much for joining me. I know that you've been in advanced manufacturing for over 35 years. Just give me a brief overview of your career. Absolutely. So I am a, an immigrant to this country. My family came here from the Soviet union when I was seven years old. My mom was a hairdresser. My mom, uh, my dad was a toolmaker, so I pretty much have the genetics, uh, to be a maker, to be a person that uses their hands.
Speaker 1 02:05 Uh, I did not do well in high school academically, but luckily back then I had shop class. I excelled there. Plus I went to work where my father's a little machine shop, uh, when I was about 15. And that kind of sent me down a career at that point. Not everyone could go to college. What? I was very happy being a maker. <inaudible> from that point I worked in a dozen different companies. I visited in my career, luckily close to 400 manufacturing companies and truly saw how things were made. And I was very lucky because even on the weekends I was tinkering with motorcycles and off-road race cars and you know, starting with erector sets, going all the way to <inaudible>, building a full size vehicles. I love the world of making things. And then in my career I saw, uh, the opportunity to learn more and more from amazing, amazing makers. So you didn't actually have an apprenticeship anywhere, but you did get to get into
Speaker 2 03:00 those places and see how things were done and learn by doing.
Speaker 1 03:04 Correct. Absolutely. I got to visit every manufacturing company I visited. I went there to teach them how to use some high tech equipment that they just recently purchased. So I spent a week there working with these amazing people and of course makers love to show off what they do. So I learned from them. They showed me, I mean I've, I've done everything from touch a space shuttle, uh, to see how wedding dresses and chainsaws are made and satellite components. And these are amazing people. And this was <inaudible> pretty much throughout the late 1980s all of the 1990s and the early two thousands where I traveled from company to company and taught to them, uh, how to use this equipment, this technology. And in return I got a, an amazing, amazing education and how things are made.
Speaker 2 03:49 So in your travels, when did you start to see that there was a skills gap issue developing <inaudible>
Speaker 1 03:55 I would say in the <inaudible> early two thousands. So in the mid nineties, I met and married a school teacher and off. Can I just asked, Hey, uh, how was shop classes going in schools? Well, they're killing them off. They're slowly as, as the shop teacher, grays out retires, they're not bringing them in. And I, I did a lot of research into it and I found out in the early nineties the mindset of this country shifted to one that says everyone should go to college. That we don't make things in this country anymore, that everything is done in China and Mexico and India. I said, well, that's not true. I'm in the world of manufacturing and it's doing incredibly well. Then I did the Dylan Morgan digging and I found out that wow, shop classes are dying, they're being removed. Uh, and I thought that's a travesty. So in the, in the two thousands, the more I dug into it, the worst I saw the problem.
Speaker 1 04:42 Meanwhile, my friends in industry are saying, gee, we can't find good people. We keep going talking to the schools and they're saying, I'm sorry, we don't teach that stuff anymore. <inaudible> because we're not exposed to it. Our young adults are not exposed to these hands on skills in high schools. I mean, granted there are the exceptional unicorns, the one school in a district that has a shop class, but in general overall in this country, we've all seen the death of hands on vocational skills classes in high schools, which then hurts companies, which then hurts. But even vocational schools because they don't have a, an eager body of students wanting to come in and learn from them. <inaudible> this is how the skills gap came to be is our educational system no longer valued these skills. And the other reason I personally believe is a higher education wanted more clients. They wanted more students and thereby we have this one point $6 trillion student loan debt.
Speaker 2 05:39 So you know, if we look back at history, I think Jean we had, there was a time when there weren't a lot of people that did get the opportunity to go to college and university. And then that slowly evolved and more people started to go to college and university and then those college and people started
Speaker 1 05:58 raising children and they said, you have to go to college and university. That's how you're going to get a job. And you know, I remember being in high school and there was a certain stigma around the shop classes. They were in the back of the high school. That was where all the big rooms were. And they were doing all kinds of <inaudible> cool stuff. When you'd walk back there, but there was a stigma around the people that were in that wing of the school that they just weren't university or college material and that's why they were learning to do stuff with their hands. Is that stigma still there? 100% it's still absolutely there though. When you and I had shot class, a lot of generations had shop class. It was, it was two things. It was you're good at it. You should go that that way.
Speaker 1 06:40 And that's what it was for me when my counselor said, and I've literally, I'm quoting his words, gene, you're too stupid for algebra. We're going to put you in shop class. Most people would take that as an insult. I'm going, it's about damn time someone would realize this is my strengths. It was a blessing for me. But I also remember the shock glass was a dumping ground for all the trouble kids. So it was, it was a different environment. I thrived other people, it didn't help all but the mentality that everyone should go to college, we all know is absolutely not true. And when they eliminated those classes and they started funneling everyone into college, that's when the mindset even even prove to people, yo, yeah, everyone should go to college. Otherwise you're not as intelligent. But we know that it's a <inaudible> different set of intelligences.
Speaker 1 07:24 It absolutely is. We visualize in three D yeah. Like describe what a maker looks like that, that person who, who absolutely thinks creatively thinks differently. Um, and is not like, um, a pen and paper type person or a computer type person. Absolutely. So to define a maker is trying to define a musician. How do you know someone as a musician, you hand them a musical instrument. They innately, they start to play music, they start to make music. They're curious about how to make even more music. Yeah. You know, we tour a high school students through our facility all the time and we watch their eyes. It really is that simple. When we bring him into a welding room and a room is three D printers or, or, uh, CAD and their eyes open up a little bit and their eyes go big. We know their hours.
Speaker 1 08:10 It truly is that simple to see if you're a maker, it's not something you can force upon someone. They either are or they're not. And the beautiful thing is if you're not sure, start learning these skills because they are valuable to you as a human being. The ability to fix and take care of your own things, it makes for a better human. So we say here, even if you take our courses, no, don't do that for a living. You are a more capable human that one day we'll fix your own thing instead of having to spend thousands to pay someone else to fix it. So to define a maker, number one, no genetic bias there is absolutely new, no gender bias, religion, height, weight, ethnicity. Even if you're missing a limb, whether you're a veteran or through an accident or something else, you can be all 100% capable maker.
Speaker 1 08:51 And I always tell people the only difference between you starting and meet with my 30 plus years experience, it's just that it's experience. It's not <inaudible>. If I send a a student, let's say to a music school or a sports school, there's a certain amount of mm talent in your DNA, right to be an outstanding <inaudible>, a musician, not in the world of making things. It's simply the acquisition of skills and putting in the effort to do so. So in my world, everyone is a maker, but if you choose the academics path, that's wonderful. We need you there. But don't think that everyone is like you. We are makers. We are the ones that make the world go round. Whether whether you're sewing address or you're, you're machining a component for an oil rig or, or your driving <inaudible> installing, servicing automation. We are people that not only don't want to use our minds, we also want to use our hands. <inaudible>
Speaker 1 09:46 look at the German model. It's wonderful. Age 14 you pick pretty much if you want to go academic or vocational at any point, if you decide it's not for you, you can switch over. But here that's that stigma of well you're, you're not as smart cause you're obviously not going to college. I have a lot of friends, I'm sure as we do that got a degree. They're very intelligent. That one niche thing, but it's not what they do for a living. <inaudible> and we have some college people come in and take classes with us simply because I have my degree but I can't find a job. I need a skillset that's valuable. So we have an industry problem. Don't mean we do. Yeah. So and the educational system, the way it is now and the way it had been in the past, like they can't rebuild that.
Speaker 1 10:29 So what does industry need to be doing now? I know that you started vocab, me too to kind of address this problem, but let's look at it from the top down. Industry is looking for skills. What are they looking for? Well industry is always looking for uh, subject matter experts, right? They want the Sage, they want some with 20 years experience and that specific fields. Those folks are retired. Actually. A lot of those folks are becoming my instructors, which is wonderful, but they're not going to find these very skilled specialists. What vocab dummies business model around is creating things. People that are fundamentally skilled. Imagine that this is bootcamp are those skills. Our longest program is six months. We think in six months we can teach you the fundamentals of how to be a fast and effective. Then when you go to a company, they choose from <inaudible> the dozen or so skillsets we teach you in that six months and they choose, gee, we want this skillset and this skillset and this skillset from the students to do the role that we need. <inaudible>
Speaker 1 11:27 and we will teach them the rest and we will make them <inaudible> a specialist in our role. So if you go, for example, if someone goes through it, just a weldings, that's wonderful. That's exactly what they want to do. But then you're limited two jobs, welding jobs and I'm, I'm afraid. But if you just know how to weld that in the future, a robot might be doing that. But if you learn welding and machining and three D printing and computer aided design, you might be the person that goes into a facility that's just getting into automation and they need someone who not only knows the process of welding cause they learn the basics. They also know the basics of <inaudible>, uh, automation and robotics and programming. You will be the one <inaudible> the automated welding cell instead of being a welder. But from our program, if you, out of the dozen things we teach, you love the welding the most.
Speaker 1 12:14 When you go into a welding school after us, you are a rock star know it's exactly what you want to do. You have the fundamentals. We basically we are taking the place, Oh what's shop class should have been, if it was allowed to evolve correctly in our educational system. I w I was going to ask you, so who are you actually training at? Vocab me? Is it young people or is it career retraining? What is it? Yes. Yes. So, so normally if you are to take an individual course, let's say if you want to take welding and fabrication or sewing and textiles, we'll take you as young as 14 because we truly think at that age, uh, we have an incredibly safe environment with an exceptional record. Uh, we'll teach you the basics, not what we don't do is we don't teach theory and history.
Speaker 1 12:56 It's all practical hands on boot camp style learning. If you want to take our six months, learn the hundred and 15 classes we offer all at once, that's, you have to be at least 17 or 18. Because when you want to go straight into work, you have to be at least 18 in our world, uh, to make sure we meet with the, with the OSHA regulations. Ah, in which case everyone is welcome. So currently we have, uh, parents sending high school kids in the evenings to get this additional training. <inaudible> students that are <inaudible> come out of high school that want to explore this world, they will, they want to be makers. They're not certain which of the making fields they want to get into. So they're getting this very breadth of education versus depth. We have engineering students that realize, well, I cannot be a good engineer if I've never touched a screwdriver, so I have to learn this stuff because the friends that I grew up with that went to engineering school, I also had shop class <inaudible>.
Speaker 1 13:47 They can design and build things because they've made it broken it and made it better. I spent five years working as a staff member at a university and I've seen those engineers come out of high schools with no hands on skills. They're engineering stuff that will never work. <inaudible> and the universities tell them all, you'll get that practical experience when you go to work <inaudible> we have to teach you the theory and the math. Well, hold on. Those companies aren't going to hire you if you have no practical experience. So we tell if you're thinking about going to an engineering school, a real university, four year degree, come here for a gap year program. Learn these skills that these are the same skills that got us to the moon. It wasn't just the engineers, it wasn't the people. Turning the screwdrivers, the people in the middle of doing the intricate work of making <inaudible> the parts for those rockets.
Speaker 1 14:37 So we have a very uh, unique fit. And of course it's 14 and <inaudible>. Yup. We do have people here coming that they need to upscale themselves. Now whether they want a career change, wonderful. It's up to you. Or let's say you're a single mom flipping and do you need something that makes you more valuable to the world? You can't take on a college course. Are you going into oil deep school? That's thousands of hours. We'll give you that training in a matter of a couple of weeks, in a couple of months instead of committing to know two years of community college and then starting down some sort of path to skills. So I'm presumably when somebody comes out of one of your courses, if they've actually been making something and they are looking for work, they can take something that they've made in your courses to that job interview and say, this is the kind of stuff I've already learned how to make <inaudible> and these are the skills I have.
Speaker 1 15:28 Absolutely. So one of the things we offer our students, I'm like, I think just about any other school on earth. <inaudible> you're welcome to come into our facility, four to 10:00 PM every evening to practice the skills that we've taught you. So if we've taught you how to sew, come in the evening. So something, take a picture of it, put it in your resume. If you welded something up, I don't care if you're doing a motorcycle frame or a some sort of structure, or if you're three D print or if you do CAD, that is what's building up your resume. We know, we know. Here's what employers want. We wanted to see what you've learned. And the only way you can prove that it's not a piece of paper, whether it's our piece of paper or a degree. <inaudible> show me your body of work. Show me what you've been learning.
Speaker 1 16:07 Show me your first weld and show me not you, what you're welding a couple of months later, right? Or in machining or work, uh, three D printing. Okay? That's what we think is valuable. So in vocab me, you take a course, but meanwhile you also have access to learn the skills and that's not something you can do in a high school or in a college. We're at a company and the magical thing that happens if Academy here at night, we have 14 1516 year olds. We also have 50 and 60 year olds because we have people that throughout their career, let's say their accountant, they've wanted to always learn woodworking. They come here, they learned the basics. You're welcome to come back and use our woodshop and that amazing interaction between the gray hairs and the millennials. It's astonishing because here we only talk about making things <inaudible>. We tell the the Sage is the older folks teach what, you know, don't teach what we teach. And it creates an amazing environment. And a lot of times when we close on Fridays at 10 o'clock, we literally have to ask people to go home, come back on Monday, come back and you can continue this conversation because they find this as their place. And every moment they spend here they're learning incredibly valuable information because it's just like a music school.
Speaker 1 17:19 Are you having trouble finding instructors to teach the skills that you offer? Not as much. <inaudible> and the reason I say that is simply because in order for some with experience to teach at a public school or university, they have to be an educator by degree. Uh, not with us. We teach the way it's been taught for thousands of years, masters and apprentices. So we reach out to industry and say, Hey, do you have anyone that's retiring? Do you have anyone that wants to do some moonlighting for us and teach teaching skills? And when we say, show us your body of work and if we really love what you do and you come teach for us, we background check you, we live scan you and we give you this amazing curriculum that will be our cells developed in every category to use in that classroom. And we have the folks that are working here love doing what they do.
Speaker 1 18:10 They want to share their skill sets and they've gone to regular schools and the schools and said, I'm sorry you can't work for us because you're not a credentialed, educated. So what we do here is we bring in those instructors, we showed them our curriculum, we'd give them the basics of teaching, we constantly help them become better instructors and we're slowly starting to <inaudible> to get all of our teachers credentialed. So they are, you know, in quotes a real teacher. Hmm. What, what does a blade tech career look like for those people that are taking some of your programs and thinking beyond where they are right now? What does that, that blue tech career look like? Because these can be very well paying jobs. They can be very highly skilled and they should be sought after jobs. So what does it look like? They are 100% going to be the future.
Speaker 1 18:59 One word automation automation is taking over the world. We've seen some reports of art, the inland empire area of Southern California, the 40% <inaudible> percent of jobs will be impacted by automation. And here's what that means. They can Amazon warehouse, it has 3000 people working in it now. And those, a lot of those people are human robots. Well, in a few years from now, the 3000 people, it's going to go down to 300 and what do those 300 people do? They are the <inaudible> automation robotics technician. Yeah. And what does an automation and robotics technician do? Well, they need to know CAD in three D printing because if a gripper arm on a robot has to change, you can <inaudible> and three D printed. You need to know the basics of machining. You know the basics of programming. What is a robot? If you take it down into its pieces, it's everything we teach here even.
Speaker 1 19:46 Why are we teaching sewing in the world of robotics? Well, if you ever look at a robotic arm painting a vehicle, that arm is wrapped in a sewn sleeve. And if that's leave cares, someone has to fix it. If that robotic system goes down, a technician, a very wealth paid <inaudible>, the skilled technician has to go in and fix it. If you've been to a McDonald's, you've seen those kiosks now, right? So the person behind the counter making minimum wage loses their jobs. But let me tell you, coming from 30 years of being around industrial automation, it needs to be serviced constantly. It needs to be upgraded, maintained, reprogram. So I cannot help 2,700 people are going to lose their low skilled, a dull, dirty, or dangerous job. But if those people choose to learn these skills, they will become <inaudible> incredibly valuable. And my, my theory about the future is on a Starship between galaxies, you will need these makers when things go wrong to fix whatever it is.
Speaker 1 20:45 And I truly believe a breadth of skills is much more valuable nowadays than a very niche area for taste are there. There's an amazing book, I forgot the name of it, but it basically says the future belongs to the generalists. The future belongs to the creative types that no where to find the answers. We cannot possibly teach you everything about machining and welding and sewing and CAD and three D printing in six months. Well we can teach you the fundamentals so you're safe so you know what you're doing. And we also know there's a phone in your pocket. So if you look at a device, you can identify the components, but how to specifically fix a, just maintain it. You can look it up. Education cannot change. Education tries to teach you everything. You know we're teaching you. Here's the basics and here's where to find what else you need to know.
Speaker 1 21:33 I don't need to have someone here for four years because in an engineering program, if you were just to take engineering classes, you'd be done in two years. It says they have you in French history and biology and art, eh, they need to fill up that time. Industry moves at a thousand miles an hour. Education moves at a hundred there is a disconnect. I always keep telling people <inaudible> if education should listen to industry, we would not have a skills gap. What makes us think they can fix it? My goal in all honesty is a thousand vocab dummies partnering with big companies. Let's say I am here to solve your problem. I am your bootcamp. Imagine a vocab dummy powered by Chrysler in Detroit, powered by Boeing and in Seattle. Not only am I creating the perfect people that they can hire at an entry level with <inaudible> very upward mobility jobs.
Speaker 1 22:24 I'm also creating the kind of people, the one and two person shop needs. I can't afford an apprenticeship. They can't afford to take their best person and teach that new hire. I am here telling you I'm going to filter the people and we are that want to be in this world. I'm going to give them basic skills. Are they a clean slate ready for you to do with them as you wish? That was my question for you. I actually was thinking, you know, you started vocab me back in 2013 <inaudible> and you're, you're teaching these basic skills, but this is, you can replicate what you're doing. At least it would be my impression. And you can put that in any place. And I could completely see any large manufacturer or as he said, small saying, okay Jean, here's what I need. <inaudible> hour, you know, like you said, Chrysler or Ford vocab me, we need these skills.
Speaker 1 23:21 So can you come here, get set up, find the people in our area or bring them in that have these skills that can share them and we'll, you know, have the Ford slash Chrysler automotive vocab dummy in Detroit in record time, in record time. Because I've given this a decade of thought how to replicate and I am <inaudible> not part of the educational system. I'm not a school in the legal sense. I am a small business. And I did that because I have the respect of small business because I create a product that's valuable to them. So imagine for a moment, but let's say we go to Seattle <inaudible> creative Academy powered by Boeing, right? In a matter of 12 months using a piece of what I call dead retail and office max or a staples that has shutdown or Kmart that's shut down, that's the building I want. <inaudible>
Speaker 1 24:13 we put up the walls. My industry relationship with equipment manufacturers, uh, and my relationship with equipment manufacturers is incredible. <inaudible> they are too suffering from the skills gap because when they go to sell a piece of equipment, they're selling an airplane, right? And they have no pilots. If they give me the equipment, I create the pilots. So they come to me and say, Hey Jean, uh, there's a company interested in, in our equipment and they're going to call you cause because they need freshly trained, uh, operators, technicians, programs. It's an amazing relationship I have with them and they are ready to scale with me. I'm curious because I know that, that you started vocab tummy. So I want to know where that Colonel came from. That seed of an idea and how long it took to germinate too. You know, that day you launched in 2013, it was probably <inaudible> 2005.
Speaker 1 25:07 Aye. In touch with my manufacturing friends. They're desperate for people. I start going to school districts. I started going to colleges. We need to bring this back. We need to have these skills. No, no, no. We don't do that anymore. It's all college. It's all, Nope. Uh, ATG standards in California for college prep. And then I got a job at a university running their instructional labs and their machine shop and I found out they don't teach you. You don't teach your engineering students how any of this equipment works. No. They'll get to it in their fourth year when they're doing their senior design project. That doesn't work. So I started looking around and there's something called makerspaces. It started popping around around the country. And what a maker spaces is, it's kind of like a gym, but instead of treadmills and weights, you have industrial equipment.
Speaker 1 25:50 So basically you pay a monthly membership, they give you a quickie class and you're able to access equipment that you can't normally afford. I'm going, Oh my God, that's the answer. But they're missing the Mark. You have to go deeper with your education, but you don't go to the level of a trade school. So vocab to me, vocational Academy, I white sheet design. What would I do differently in the school? Well, number one, grades and tests don't matter. It's the work that speaks for you. Number two, what I, I loved shop class. It made me the person that I am today, but what I hate, it was getting kicked out after class told to go home. <inaudible> school is closed. So I said, okay, no grades, no tests. You're allowed to fail and make mistakes, but every time you do something that's better. And then I'm going to allow our students to come in <inaudible> practice because you know, in, in the terms of a piano lessons, you're never going to get good at piano with.
Speaker 1 26:41 The only time you play is that hour a day <inaudible> in school. So by giving people access to this facility that allows him to add that element of expense. Yeah. And building up there industrial artist's portfolio. <inaudible> and I started <inaudible>. This was born out of grass roots. Okay. Microscopic. A bit of a investment with my retirement. Everything I owned, the equipment that I had in my own little shop behind my home. Okay. And it's been a heck of a journey. It has not been easy, but my goal is to completely to stay out of the educational system. My goal for whole Academy is it's industry funded through a nonprofit partnership, through equipment donations. My goal is industry. You have a problem. Education, I believe cannot react fast enough and there's a lot of bureaucracy and they don't answer to us. They answer it to the educational department. <inaudible> there priorities change on a whim because I keep saying it. <inaudible>
Speaker 1 27:40 listened to to industry. This problem would exist. What I am offering you is I'm saying I serve you. I serve advanced manufacturing. No, I'm not going to make you an expert, but I will make you a generalist. That is that perfect candidate. <inaudible>, you know, wants to work in the business that has the skills, the start and no vocab to me after, after this many years is prime. We have our <inaudible> people in place, we have our processes in place, we have our product, our self, uh, created curriculum. <inaudible>. This is our pivotal year. 2020 is our amazing year. Our student numbers are growing. Our curriculum is at 115 classes and it doesn't subject. And now we're looking for those companies that are saying, you know what, Jean, I have such a problem in our area. I can band together with a bunch of other manufacturing companies in our area and we want to bring you here.
Speaker 1 28:35 And literally the <inaudible> vocabulary operating system, the book on how to create, how to set up on other vocabulary exists and we've worked it out to make it so incredibly efficient and low cost compared to having to raise a bond measure and <inaudible> millions of dollars for a new facility on a college campus. Uh, no, we can be ready in 12 to 18 months. Hmm. You know, when you talk about makers, I just see them as creative people and everybody has some sort of creativity in them. And the way it sounds like you've set up vocab tummy, you allow people to go in there and be creative and what you don't say is like, okay, your hour classes up and you're right in the middle <inaudible> in the zone on some creative idea and the bell goes and you gotta get out and that just kills it. I predict that somebody's going to make something right? Absolutely. Okay. Hmm. Transformative in one of your classes and uh, we'll hear about vocab tummy sometime down the line with some of the things that had been there. I think it's fantastic and I really don't see why industry wouldn't pick up and say, you know, you've got 12 months to set up a vocab tummy. There's like an, as you said, an office Depot sitting empty there,
Speaker 2 29:54 set it up in there,
Speaker 1 29:55 go, here's some funding, get it started. I just, I can't see why that wouldn't work for you. That's our goal for this year because we're already having those conversations with some local cities and they're looking very promising. And then there's no reason we can't, you know, just like the Chipotle model <inaudible> set 'em up, stamp them out. We know where we find our people. They come here to this facility to get trained. They go back to their facility and they're ready to go. Well, that's what we've been doing over these past seven years, is creating that replicable, scalable model to take this elsewhere. Because I'm not, I'm not limited by any kind of educational department or locality. It's a matter of what community needs us and we believe every community it needs us.
Speaker 2 30:39 Well, gee, nice. I suspect you're going to get, uh, get calls from people and I certainly hope it works out for you. The a website is at vocab <inaudible> dot com is that correct?
Speaker 1 30:49 Absolutely. <inaudible> dot com if somebody wants to reach me, it's gene, G, E N E <inaudible> vocabulary.com. Hi, welcome to conversations. Yeah. And Jean, keep me posted on how things are going with you. I'd like to check in in six months to a year and see how things are happening. And uh, I really appreciate talking to you, but, uh, the skills gap and what you are personally trying to do to fix it.
Speaker 2 31:11 So thank you,
Speaker 1 31:12 I appreciate it and I love your podcast. I'm going through all the episodes. I'm myself, a lifelong learner and I really appreciate what you're doing.
Speaker 2 31:18 Well, thank you very much Jean. That's great. I'd love to find a new listener. That's awesome. So, uh, thank you. So gene Sherman is the founder and CEO of vocab dummy. They are located in Riverside, California. And happy to locate anywhere near you if you'd like. That's our show this week. Please check out our Twitter and LinkedIn feeds that are on our podcast page and subscribe and share the podcast with your friends and colleagues through iTunes, Google play, Stitcher, Spotify and YouTube. And remember that the maker right podcast is brought to you by Kevin Snoop, leadership advisor and author of the bestselling books. Make it right, five steps to align your manufacturing business from the front line to the bottom line on Janet Eastman. And hotel. Next con, thanks very much for listening to the <inaudible> podcast.
