NIMS, LIFT, and Ivy Tech release new skills credentials

The National Institute for Metalworking Skills (NIMS), Lightweight Innovations for Tomorrow (LIFT)—one of the Manufacturing USA institutes—and Indianapolis-based Ivy Tech Community College are making available a new set of skills credentials and training to fill the largest number of open manufacturing jobs in states along the Midwest auto corridor. The partners are releasing nine new NIMS credentials that validate key skills and competencies needed for industrial technology maintenance jobs, which represent a critical and growing function in high-tech manufacturing focused on new technologies and innovation.

“Manufacturing organizations—especially those serving the defense and transportation sectors—continue to embrace new lightweight metals and technologies, adding advanced technical requirements to critical jobs already going unfilled because workers do not have the required skills,” said Emily DeRocco, education and workforce development director, LIFT. “This is an unprecedented yet critical partnership to address the ever-increasing workforce needs of our industry partners and their supply chains.”

Industrial technology maintenance jobs focus on the maintenance, troubleshooting, and improvement of complex machines and automation systems that create efficient and productive manufacturing. To support the rapid deployment of new lightweighting technologies being developed at LIFT, workers will have to understand and be confident in using the latest advanced technologies, help integrate them into companies’ processes, and maintain their performance over time.

Nationally, there were 322,759 job postings for industrial technology maintenance jobs from 2015 to 2016, but only 26,152 graduates in related training or postsecondary programs. This skills gap, coupled with the fact that 58 percent of the current industrial technology maintenance workforce is approaching or has surpassed retirement age, puts increasing pressure on manufacturing employers, particularly those in states along the Midwest auto corridor.

To address this void, the partners have completed several steps to build an industrial technology maintenance workforce and sustain the health of U.S. manufacturing:

• Rolling out the first industry standards for educating and training the industrial technology maintenance workforce.
• Training instructors from community colleges across the nation.
• Equipping a competent workforce with the knowledge, skills, and credentials they need to enter into and advance in the field.

In partnership with Ivy Tech, NIMS worked with over 125 industry, education, and workforce development experts to develop the industry standards for the training programs and the credentials that will prepare industrial technology mechanics and technicians.

Credentials available include maintenance operations, basic mechanical systems, basic hydraulic systems, basic pneumatic systems, electrical systems, electronic control systems, process control systems, maintenance welding, and maintenance piping.

For more information on the industrial technology maintenance credentials, visit nimsready.org/industrial-technology-maintenance/ or contact NIMS Director of Marketing Christine Hubley at chubley@nims-skills.org.