WEll unless the tech is just going to be a light tech, you know water pumps, and alternators and NOT get into pulling heads and such then yes there is a great need for machinists.
And here is my view on it. I live in southern Indiana and the loss of good knowledgeable machinists is tragic.
In my area the small shop I worked at 20 some years ago (radiator work and cylinder heads, we outsourced boring) has closed, in my neighborhood, a friend of mine has a machine shop, he used to run it as a garage but when the guy who worked with him left he kind of slowed up.
If I ever had the cash I would build a new building and let him move all of his equipment into it. he likes old equipment and in that shop he has a preponderance of old stuff he picks up and old parts.
What really needs to happen is a good clean up and recycle. but when it comes to machine work he is probably one of the best.
Yet in todays world a good machine shop that put out good reputable work is HARD to find. Many people still want and need these services, yet too many are closing, or going under with buying CNC crap equipment when a 30s model Van Norman boring bar will still bore dead straight and less than 0.0005 tolerance.
We used equipment that has done work for many decades and will for many more if kept up,,,,and it does just as good as the uber expensive new stuff.
Dont get me wrong new equipment is cool if you are building 10s or hundreds of engines a day/week/year. YET the art of being a machinist and figuring out HOW to do things with the least and most basic equipment is being lost.
A lot because of people like this dean have no idea where you get heads fixed, or engines repaired as a shop.
Just where does he think a machine shops and and there expertise come from? The moon?
Send me a name and address Ill give them a letter.
Heck I am working on an '09 G5 with burnt valves in a 2.2 Ecotech VVT. WE have to send to local machine shop, the other one in town moved out of town.
And I am just not real happy with this shop but its all we have.
I am building a B16A with B18c Vtec head for a guy at work then we will turbo it.
He just wants to build a car to beat his buddy, I keep telling him when its together and tuned he will run harder. This IS what I do, build and tune cars be it 4, 6, 8, or more cylinders.
My buddy with machine shop is doing the block work, I still need to work on the head and do some polishing and clean up and the valve job.
PM me some info, Ill write book for them.