Manufacturing training required

Ran on Tuesday, June 15, 2007

Manufacturing training required

By Keighla Schmidt
Leader-Telegram staff

The days when a man became a blacksmith and stayed a blacksmith for his whole life have passed. One group, is aiming to better equip people in the manufacturing business for that change.Manufacturing Skill Standards Council, MSSC, is a nationwide group based in industry certifying people in skill standards for all sects of manufacturing. “This is really something quite different,” said Leo Reddy, CEO of MSSC. “We make people easily trainable to go from one industry sector to another.”The program certification will indicate to employers the skills, training and capabilities the potential technician has. By educating them with basic ideas and skills to be applied in any industrial-based job, MSSC is creating an “industrial athlete of the future,” Reddy said. The program is still in infancy stages, being adopted in just five states, Wisconsin being one of them.As a state promoting the manufacturing industry, organizations on many levels are adopting the MSSC guidelines. Maria Gjovig, School to Career coordinator at the Hudson school district said high school students in the region will have the opportunity to take the course this summer. In return, they will receive some credit at a technical college. A incentive grant to introduce high school juniors and seniors to careers in manufacturing was passed by the West Central Wisconsin Workforce Development Board.The grant was passed “because of the disconnect with young people in manufacturing careers and the demand in the part of the state,” said Richard Best, executive director of West Central Wisconsin Workforce Development Board. The projects are designed to bridge the gap of the supply and demand, he said. “It’s important to make young people aware,” he said. One of the biggest issues the industry is facing, Best said, is an image problem. An image conveying the decline of jobs manufacturing jobs. Best said the truth is there is an increase of jobs available in Wisconsin for technicians.Chippewa Valley Technical College Manufacturing and Technology Education Center Manger, Mark Hendrickson said technical colleges throughout the state of Wisconsin are eager to adapt the program in an attempt to bridge the skills gap, adapt to the changing technology and boost the shrinking work force.He said the role of the 13 of the 16 technical colleges in the state is to “offer assistance and provide training.” The trained technician will have skills in manufacturing process and production, maintenance awareness, quality and continuous improvements and safety. The main goal, Reddy said is to ”make anyone interested in and capable of working in manufacturing, able to.”