If you listen to mainstream financial media, the outlook for the American workforce is increasingly challenging. According to KPMG studies, the U.S. is facing a significant skills gap that will leave an average of 2.8 million manufacturing and trade jobs unfilled annually over the next decade.
Many CEOs simply complain about the lack of talent or petition the government for subsidies. Tom Power, CEO of Sunshine Minting, Inc. (SMI), took a different approach. He built his own pipeline.
In a recent episode of Y’all Street, Power sat down with host Tarek to discuss how his company—one of the largest private mints in the world—is actively strengthening the blue-collar workforce through localized vocational education and strategic robotics.
The K-Tech Solution
When Power moved to Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, in the late 1990s, the local economy was anchored by lumber mills. A decade later, the mills were gone, the economy had shifted to tourism, and local manufacturing businesses were struggling to find talent. High school graduates were fleeing the state because they didn’t see a future there.
Rather than waiting for state intervention, Power teamed up with a group of local CEOs to form a manufacturing consortium. They raised private capital, secured a land donation, and successfully passed a levy to build the Kootenai Technical Education Campus (K-Tech).
“We had to be relevant to what the needs of the area were,” Power explained. K-Tech provided high school juniors and seniors with access to programs in auto mechanics, diesel technology, welding, and computer science.
The results were significant. By its second year, K-Tech was graduating 100% of its class with a 99.7% job placement rate.
“Western Caterpillar pretty much has a standing job offer for every kid graduating from that diesel mechanics program,” Power noted. “And they’re walking out… making $28 to $30 an hour, and they have no debt.”
Upskilling Through Automation
Acquiring new talent is only half the battle; a modern manufacturer must also retain and elevate its existing workforce.
In an analog industry like precious metals minting, there is physically demanding, repetitive manual labor. At SMI’s Nevada facility, employees used to sit at scales at 3:00 AM, manually weighing large-format silver pieces one by one. It was a low-value, high-fatigue task.
Power’s solution was to introduce collaborative robots (cobots). But unlike the common concern that automation replaces jobs, Power used them to create upward mobility.
“We try to take people that are in low-value-add jobs… automate [the tasks], and then take those people, upskill them, and redeploy them,” Power told Y’all Street.
The six employees who previously weighed the silver manually were put through a training program to learn how to operate and program the very robots that replaced their manual task. Because they were now managing automation, SMI was able to pay them a higher wage.
“They’re thrilled,” Power said. “The challenge with AI and robotics is you have to make sure your workforce doesn’t become fearful… You demonstrate that by saying, ‘Hey, nobody’s getting laid off as a result of this. We’re just using this to expand.”
The Bottom Line
Tom Power’s playbook at Sunshine Minting proves that the private sector is more than capable of solving public infrastructure problems. By investing in local vocational education and using technology to upskill rather than replace workers, SMI has positioned itself against the demographic cliff threatening American manufacturing.
It is a powerful reminder that effective leaders don’t wait for ideal market conditions—they manufacture them.
Listen to Tom Power discuss the global silver market and manufacturing leadership on Episode 3 of Y’all Street.
