What Is the New Maker Economy?
By Kristina Faller
Students from the Rochester City School District at RIT Certified's 2024 Chip Experience summer program gaining hands-on experience with microchips.
The maker movement, also known as DIY culture, celebrates the artisan spirit, making things with your own hands, entrepreneurship, and learning while doing. While this definition may immediately bring to mind arts and crafts projects such as calligraphy, jewelry making, storytelling, or furniture building, the maker movement is about more than that. This umbrella term applies to the previously mentioned creative projects, and it also includes work known as the trades — carpentry, electrical work, construction, and more.
The maker movement has become an economy that is thriving. From handmade products sold on Etsy to inventors using crowdfunding platforms to connect with potential buyers, makers play an important role in today’s economy as designers, creators, manufacturers, employers, and taxpayers.
Innovation Fuels the Maker Economy
Today’s maker economy has evolved into a technology-based extension of DIY culture. What once was an arts and culture movement has transformed into people using their hands to make things alongside technology. The manufacturing industry is a great example.
Advanced Manufacturing represents a shift in the way products are created, designed, and manufactured, driven by advances in technology, digital tools, and the rise of a more decentralized and democratized approach to production. What used to be assembly lines of workers using their hands to make things has transformed through technology to become one of the biggest contributors to the new maker economy. Here’s how:
Accessibility of Technology
The availability of affordable, easy-to-use tools like 3D printers, laser cutters, artificial intelligence, and design software enables individuals and small groups to prototype and produce goods with minimal upfront investment.
Customization and Personalization
Consumers increasingly demand products tailored to their specific needs and preferences. Technology allows for mass customization, where products can be individually tailored without the costs typically associated with custom manufacturing.
Distributed Manufacturing
Production is no longer confined to large factories. Instead, it can happen on a smaller scale in local maker spaces, workshops, or even at home. This reduces the need for extensive supply chains and can lead to more sustainable, locally produced goods.
Collaborative and Open Source Innovation
The New Maker Economy thrives on community collaboration, where ideas and designs are often shared openly, fostering innovation and allowing rapid development of new products. Platforms like GitHub or Thingiverse exemplify this by enabling makers to share and modify digital files.
Entrepreneurial Spirit
The ease of creating and bringing products to market has empowered a new generation of entrepreneurs. Small businesses and startups can quickly move from idea to product, leveraging platforms like Kickstarter for funding and online marketplaces for sales.
Making Your Mark
While advanced manufacturing, and the massive investment being made across the globe particularly in the semiconductor industry, has a huge positive effect on the economy as a whole, this innovation of technology has led to a democratization of opportunity, empowering workers at all levels toward meaningful and life-sustaining work.
The “Trades” have historically been perceived by some as less desirable or financially rewarding than other careers that typically require more advanced degrees. The reality is that in today’s job economy, there is huge demand for qualified carpenters, builders, electricians, manufacturing line technicians, and more. And because of the depth and breadth of in-demand roles in Advanced Manufacturing, an entry-level job is a door to an entire ecosystem of potential.
This is an industry that typifies learning by doing, just like in maker culture, with advancements in technology and workforce training available for every job transition opportunity at every level. A line technician’s entry level salary is more than many college graduates are earning, but it doesn’t necessarily require a college degree. Engineers with advanced degrees are taking advantage of training in technology to pivot into specialized manufacturing fields like chips and semiconductor industries.
We’re Here to Help You Make It
The educators at RIT Certified understand that today’s job economy is driven by makers. All jobs of the 21st century have become driven by creativity, idea generation, and making. We have skills-forward, employer-informed and endorsed training to support the full ecosystem of work. We offer inskilling training to provide entry into fields of work providing potential for lifelong career progression. We offer upskilling training to meet people’s needs at every transition they face in their career. We provide executive-level training to help shape the leaders of tomorrow.
Just like the maker economy, we infuse technology advancements like AI, VR, and digital innovations into all our fields of practice training. And RIT Certified is like a makerspace in that our learning experiences are practical laboratories where people can work on real-world projects. What we offer is not just about learning; it’s about applying what you learn in a hands-on, visible way. This–the way of the maker–gives people a valuable edge in today’s job economy, which demands tangible demonstration of skills and ability.