November is Automation Appreciation Month.

The International Society of Automation (ISA) and its affiliate, the Automation Federation, have designated November 2015 as Automation Appreciation Month. “Automation Appreciation Month is an opportunity to celebrate the value and importance of the automation discipline, and to thank ISA members for their dedication and volunteerism to the Society and to the automation profession as a whole,” says Patrick Gouhin, ISA Executive Director and CEO. Throughout November, ISA is offering its members special benefits, promotions and discounts on multi-day classroom or online, instructor-assisted ISA training* and other select ISA products, which include technician guides, safety books and cybersecurity resources. (To view a list of all the special Automation Appreciation Month offers for ISA members, click here. Interested in becoming an ISA member? Review ISA’s member benefits page.) As part of Automation Appreciation Month’s celebration of the automation profession, ISA and the Automation Federation seek to raise awareness throughout industry and manufacturing around the need to encourage more young people to pursue STEM-centered learning—which is essential to developing the next generation of automation professionals. Throughout October, ISA highlighted—through emails distributed to its membership—four valuable ways ISA members can contribute to STEM initiatives. They include: Hosting a workplace tour for students Organizing an automation career fair or related event Sponsoring, participating in or contributing to a robotics or STEM-related activity Serving as a mentor—speaking at a school or to others about automation-related careers All automation professionals, engineers and others within STEM-centric career fields will find numerous ways to get involved through programs established by ISA- and Automation Federation-supported affiliates, such as: FIRST® (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) DiscoverE (formerly The Engineers Week Foundation) Project Lead The Way Increasing the supply of workers qualified and prepared to compete for high-tech jobs is perhaps the most pressing challenge facing manufacturers worldwide. Experts project that over the next 10 years nearly 3.5 million manufacturing jobs in the US will be needed. However, because of the ongoing shortage of skilled workers, up to 2 million of these jobs may go unfilled. Today, six out of 10 production jobs remain open because of the talent shortage, according to a recent study by The Manufacturing Institute and Deloitte. Boosting the availability of STEM-savvy workers provides manufacturers with the competent workforce needed to drive corporate growth and meet critical performance metrics. For qualified employees, today’s jobs in manufacturing are well paying and offer solid advancement potential. The average annual salary of a manufacturing worker is $77,000 (€70k) For more details on Automation Appreciation Month and to learn how you can help encourage and support young people in their STEM learning, visit www.isa.org/aam. * Buy one, get one for 50% off. Applies to any multi-day classroom or online, instructor-assisted ISA training course scheduled between November 2015 and March 2016.