The Manufacturing Skill Standards Council reports it has made significant progress in its effort to increase the number of workers certified to perform critical manufacturing jobs. MSSC is an industrial training, assessment, and certification organization, and part of a larger initiative led by The Manufacturing Institute to raise the domestic workforce’s education and skill level.
The Institute is a non-profit affiliate of the National Association of Manufacturers. It leads a multi-party effort, endorsed by the White House and including community colleges, employers, and organizations like MSCC, to deliver manufacturing certification programs for advanced vocational skills like machining and welding. The goal is to develop more workers capable for such operations, to improve the workers’ potential of being hired for well-paying positions and to improve domestic manufacturers’ global competitiveness.
Recently, the Institute noted it delivered over 84,000 new credentials in 2011, marking good progress toward the five-year goal to award 500,000 industry-based credentials to individuals in the manufacturing workforce.
"This joint action between industry, education, and the public sector will grow a skilled manufacturing workforce and strengthen the U.S. economy," according to MSSC’s chief executive Leo Reddy.
"Given the MSSC's focus on front-line workforce populations with the greatest number of jobs, it is able to certify a large number of individuals for employment and advancement among the 8.3 million front-line manufacturing jobs and the 5.8 million front-line material handling and distribution jobs in the U.S.," Reddy continued.
