Home Commentary Our children, grandchildren are the answers to fixing R.I.’s machinist shortage

Our children, grandchildren are the answers to fixing R.I.’s machinist shortage

By

Karl Wadensten

-

11/17/2025

0428dits — Karl Wadensten

Rhode Island has a machinist shortage. Not a mild one – a real, painful, business-strangling shortage. Every manufacturer in the state is feeling it. Let’s stop pretending that another task force, binder full of initiatives or round of talking points will fix this. The solution is far simpler, standing right in front of us in steel-toed Crocs. Take a look at this moment. My son, not even 30 years old, a

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1 COMMENT

paulette.blagburn@marmoniei.com 11/17/2025 At 4:29 pm

I couldn’t agree more! Allow your children to explore opportunities beyond just college. They may be Rhodes Scholars but if manufacturing and building things excite them more than college, let them do it. Encourage them. We need all skills.

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Rhode Island has a machinist shortage. Not a mild one - a real, painful, business-strangling shortage. Every manufacturer in the state is feeling it. Let’s stop pretending that another task force, binder full of initiatives or round of talking points will fix this. The solution is far simpler, standing right in front of us in steel-toed Crocs. Take a look at this moment. My son, not even 30 years old, a sharp engineer who can actually build things, is at the Rhode Island CNC explaining every move to my grandson, Hendrix. Glasses on, gloves on, locked in and with a thousand questions, that kid didn’t want to leave. His uncle and the process were bigger than life at that time. That’s the beginning. That’s where a machinist is born. That’s how you grow a builder. Every person in this field can point to that early spark the moment you walked into a shop and something inside you lit up. That doesn’t happen at 18 years old. It happens at 4, 6, 8 years old - only if someone opens the door. Rhode Island leaders, you all have kids and many have grandkids. Hear this clearly:

This isn’t about money
This isn’t about committees
This is about time, exposure, and caring enough to show the very young what’s possible.

If Rhode Island is serious about a manufacturing future, then we need more of what happened in that photo:

An adult who knows the craft
A child who’s hungry to learn
A moment that changes everything

So, here’s my challenge to Rhode Island: Open your factories, invite kids in, partner schools with local shops, stop treating manufacturing like a second-tier career and start celebrating the people who build real things. We are a state built on grit, ingenuity and hands-on problem solving. That’s the Rhode Island I know. That’s the Rhode Island that built the industrial revolution. That same spirit lives inside kids like Hendrix waiting for someone to show them the magic. If we want machinists tomorrow, we need to light the spark today. Not through bureaucracy but through humanity. Not through budgets but through curiosity. Now is the time. Because that little kid standing beside a machine with wonder in his eyes is Rhode Island’s future. And it’s our job, all of us, to make sure his spark becomes a flame. Karl Wadensten is a member of the R.I. Commerce Corp. board and president of VIBCO Inc., a manufacturing company based in Richmond. He has spent more than 25 years helping build and retain jobs in Rhode Island’s small and mid-sized business sector.