Marvin Tedder, automation training specialist at Spartanburg Community College, said beginning wages are in the $18 to $22 an hour range at most area companies, but wages can soar with experience and talent.

"Every manufacturer needs these technicians," he said, adding they are among the least likely to be affected by general layoffs.

In fact, these jobs are among the least boring and best paid in a plant, said Steven Davis, senior engineer and facilities services supervisor with Velux, a maker of skylight.

His company currently does all its training in house, he said.

"It's been kind of a disconnect," he said, because the company couldn't find employees with the needed skills. Their maintenance technicians need robotics, controls and electrical skills -- which costs the company about $2,000 in training. In fact, the Danish company has brought technicians from Europe to work on machinery when necessary.

The idea of the technical colleges bringing mechatronics short courses to plant sites is a good idea because it can be difficult for maintenance technicians to find the necessary time for training, said Lynn Smith, corporate training coordinator for Velux.

This type of multi-skilled maintenance technician is more evident in other countries, Ryerson said, adding that the United States is lagging the more high-tech countries by 10 years or so.

Needed work force skills are changing, and mechatronics is an attempt to address the different skills needed, Eason said. The Southeast is one of the nation's fastest growing regions, and manufacturing is at the center of that growth, she said.

In addition, manufacturing jobs are good jobs, said Dan Davidchik, mechatronics project coordinator at Central Community College in Nebraska. Wages are 20 percent higher than those in other sectors. Two-thirds of U.S. exports are manufactured products. Manufacturing carries out more than 60 percent of U.S. research and development.

"Manufacturing is the engine that drives the American economy," he said, adding that without changes in the skills employees have that a shortage of between 13 million and 15 million skilled workers will exist by 2020.

And all types of employers need those skills, said David Beard, vice president of AdvanceSC and Milliken and Co.'s director of energy services.

"As you ride up and down I-85 and you see a pre-fabricated building that says sheet metal or pipe fitting, those guys are just as high tech as the BMW, Michelin and Millikens, the big boys," he said.

With $2.5 million in grants from AdvanceSC, a philanthropic arm of Duke Energy, the mechatronics is designed to meet the needs of area employers. It has included not only the creation of the curriculum but professional development for faculty members. Several have been to Germany and more will study there this summer, Eason said.

Beard said the mechatronics courses would need to continually bring in new technology -- not just annually but every semester, even daily.

The program eventually could be expanded beyond the current five schools, which include Greenville Tech, Piedmont Technical College, Spartanburg Community College, Tri-County Technical College and York Technical College, to other interested technical colleges in the state.

Related Link

For more on mechatronic career information, go to the design engineering JobZone.