Emily Stover DeRocco Speech
National Council for Advanced Manufacturing
Washington, DC
June 9, 2005
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These reforms would also encourage exactly the partnerships demonstrated under the High Growth and Community-Based Job Training Grants. This is important because too often, our system and the training providers that we support are not training workers in the skills required of today’s employers. You as manufacturers particularly know how quickly the skill requirements of your workers can change and we need a system flexible enough to be responsive to those changes.
This type of constantly updated, just-in-time training requires that employer and employer associations agree upon a defined set of skills and competencies for occupations within their industry. It is in this area where I believe the advanced manufacturing sector still has some work yet to accomplish.
Over the course of our engagement with the manufacturing industry under the High Growth Initiative, we learned about numerous efforts to document the skills and competencies needed for successful careers in the industry. We saw that many organizations created curriculum, educational programs, and other training tools to help prepare America’s future manufacturing workforce, particularly in the secondary school context.
Nevertheless, we continue to hear from the industry that there is a significant need for a standardized set of foundational skills and competencies so that they know they are hiring workers who are prepared to succeed in 21st Century advanced manufacturing.
And it is not just employers:
- Prospective workers -- young people, low-skill incumbent workers, or career changers -- want to know what skills they need to take the first step toward a successful career in manufacturing.
- Community colleges and other training providers like Job Corps need to know what standards to train to, and that those standards are directly relevant to industry requirements.
- And finally, the public workforce system needs to know that the training programs they are supporting are producing workers that will find employment.
To make this a reality, all the main industry players, including NACFAM, NAM, and others, must understand the need to make progress on this issue, and develop a roadmap for future collaborative efforts.
To help guide this effort, we are posing four key questions:
- What are the critical elements of a comprehensive, foundational skills and competencies program for the Advanced Manufacturing industry?
- What organizations have developed and implemented best practices in this area?
- What is the best way to organize the industry and educational partners to develop a roadmap for progress?
- What is the proper role of federal, state, and local government partners in this project?
I urge all of you be involved in this effort. We need to ensure that whatever standards are used are responsive to the actual job requirements that all of you have. And as those job requirements change with new technology or other process improvements, those standards need to be kept up-to-date with industry in the lead.
The manufacturing industry has been through an incredibly turbulent five years. You have completed a successful transformation into one of our country’s cutting edge industries. To ensure that your success endures though requires an on-going supply of talented American workers. As the workforce system completes its own transformation, we hope that we can build a strong partnership with the advanced manufacturing industry and help supply you with the workers that will keep the new American manufacturing industry strong.
Thank you for the opportunity to speak today and I would be happy to answer any questions that you may have.
