WBTO, LLC · Oregon

What does an entry-level job in your shop actually require?

We are building a clear picture of the skills Oregon manufacturers need from new hires, so schools and training programs can teach the right things and buy the right equipment. About ten minutes, and your answers stay confidential.

Take part How it works

Why this exists

Training programs are often built on a guess about what employers want. When the guess is wrong, a school spends money on equipment nobody needed and graduates arrive missing something obvious. Nobody sets out to do that. It happens because the question is rarely asked directly.

So we are asking it directly. We take one job at a time, list what a person in that job actually does, and ask employers what level a new hire needs to arrive with. Then we ask the programs that train those people the same questions. The difference between those two answers is the gap, and the gap is what tells a district what to fix.

8
Job profiles ready
17
Manufacturing subsectors
~10
Minutes per job
6,500
Entry-level jobs in Clackamas County

How it works

STEP 1

Register

Tell us your company and who you are. Pick your company from the list and we fill in the rest. Two minutes.

STEP 2

Pick your jobs

Choose the roles you actually hire for, grouped by what you make. Most employers do one or two.

STEP 3

Rate the skills

For each skill, mark the level a new hire needs to arrive with. Zero is a real answer and it is used.

STEP 4

See the results

We send you the regional findings before they are published anywhere else. You will see where your region stands.

What we ask

Each profile is a short list of skills for one job, written in plain language by people who have done the work. For a welder that means shielded metal arc welding, layout, blueprint reading, flame cutting. Not competencies. Not learning outcomes. The actual work, with the equipment named beside it.

For each skill you tell us the level you need a new hire to arrive with, not what an experienced hand eventually reaches. Most entry-level skills land in the middle: they can do it, but somebody is still checking the work.

Questions we get asked

Who sees my answers?
A small team at WBTO. Nobody at a school district, a trade association, a state agency or another company sees your individual responses. Anything published is combined across at least five companies, and where fewer than five answered we report nothing at all rather than round it.
Is this a sales pitch?
No. Nobody will follow up trying to sell you anything, and we are not recruiting you into a program.
What do you mean by entry level?
Somebody with no work experience in that job. They may have some technical training from a program, they may not. It is the job you would fill with someone who has never done the work before.
Why does it matter what I say?
Because the alternative is that somebody guesses on your behalf. School districts and workforce boards are making equipment and curriculum decisions right now, with real money, based on the best information they have. This is how that information becomes yours instead of a guess.
How long does it take?
About ten minutes for one job. If you hire for two roles, twenty.

Take part

Register your company, then pick the jobs you hire for. Most employers do one or two, about ten minutes each.

Register your company

Or go straight to a job