While the skills gap in the skilled trades industries is no secret, awareness of the talent shortage has primarily grown in the past few years. According to a study by Deloitte and the Manufacturing Institute, 3.5 million manufacturing jobs are expected to become available (and need to be filled) yet 2 million of these jobs are expected to go unfilled.1 However, not all businesses are taken aback by the widening skills gap, and some began preparing for the inevitable shortage years before national headlines began highlighting it.