The whir of self-navigating robots, conveyor belts and large machines molding plastic equipment parts were deafening Wednesday as an entourage of suits moved past employees inspecting parts and operating machinery.

U.S. Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross asked questions and pointed at equipment as he toured Stihl Inc. in Virginia Beach, the U.S. headquarters of the German business. Lorraine Wagner, vice president of operations, explained different functions and processes on the factory floor.

The secretary's visit was part of a promotion for the White House’s Pledge to America’s Workers initiative, a five-year plan to get more companies to offer workforce training and career opportunities for high school students, post-retirement aged workers, and anyone in between.

Nearly 300 companies have signed the pledge so far. Ross, who leads the initiative with Ivanka Trump through the American Workforce Policy Advisory Board, hopes to set up programs and training to reach up to 10 million people.

The success of the plan, Ross said, will depend in part on changing the perception of manufacturing and factory-related careers.

“Parents have been brainwashed into thinking that factories are like what they were in the early 1900s – dark, dirty, smelly, dangerous places. Well they’re not.” he said.

Ross believes an increase in training programs and connections with local schools and students will help workforce retention for the region.

“Unfortunately, we’ve pretty well done away with (vocational training). The U.S. has the least vocational training of any OECD country,” he said, referring to the Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development. “That’s a horrible situation to be in. So we need initiatives like this to change it – to change the attitudes.”

That need for attitude change extends to school counselors too, Ross said. Many school counselors are evaluated on how many kids they are able to help enroll into college.

Their evaluations should include their ability to help students find good jobs, he said. “Until we change the way we evaluate guidance counselors and until we change the way we evaluate schools, we’re going to have a problem that we don’t need to have based on misconceptions.”

Hampton Roads suffers under the misconception about the amount and variety of industries here, Ross said. The region relies heavily on the defense industry, Ross said, and people often overlook what else is here. “Getting the word out” would help the region, as would building training programs in the right industries.