Massachusetts MEP: Massachusetts Manufacturing Extension Partnership

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 10, 2008

For more information please contact:
Jack Healy
MassMEP
Tel: 508-831-7020

MassMEP Addresses Need for Skilled Workforce in Manufacturing
Manufacturing Training Being Promoted at the Worcester Public Schools
WORCESTER, MA - The MassMEP and Worcester Public Schools have partnered to promote manufacturing careers to middle-school children. The MassMEP Mobile Training Unit will be touring some of the middle schools during the month of November. The mobile training unit is a traveling classroom that is fitted with 12 computers, a tabletop lathe and milling machine.

During the tours, middle-school students will have the opportunity to write a sample program, on one of the 12 computers, that creates a design onto a block of wood and see the program cut the block into the design they created utilizing the simulator software. The presentation includes an example of a career ladder within manufacturing. Students that have experienced this tour at other schools stated they were amazed at the opportunities within manufacturing and that they did know they could have this much fun at a job.

The Staying Power Report, a manufacturing study conducted by Northeastern University, states that Massachusetts stands to see more than 100,000 replacement job openings in manufacturing by 2016, which will compound the current serious skills shortage and 55% of the manufacturers plan on expanding production in the next five years. MassMEP is working to address the desperate need for skilled workers within the manufacturing industry in order that manufacturing companies will grow in Massachusetts.

“The lack of knowledge about manufacturing has permeated our school systems, as well as the workplace training system, and has produced a significant lack of critical manufacturing skills. This deficit is especially acute in such traditional vocational school training venues as “machining” and has reached the point where our basic industries that require precision machining are one generation away from being extinct.” States Jack Healy, Director of MassMEP.

Date	Location
November 10 and 17, 2008	Worcester East Middle School
November 12, 2008	Sullivan Middle School
November 12, 2008	Open House at Worcester Technical High School
November 13, 2008	Forest Grove Middle School
November 14, 18, 20, 21, and 24, 2008	Worcester Technical High School
November 19, 2008	Burncoat Middle School

The Time Wise ® Mobile Outreach Skills Training (M.O.S.T.) program trains people, with little or no prior manufacturing experience, in the basics of manufacturing operations in a fraction of the time of traditional programs. The training can be applied to new hire training and incumbent employees who need to advance their existing skills.

The MassMEP is an affiliate of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) under the U.S. Department of Commerce. The national MEP system is a network of manufacturing extension centers that provide business and technical assistance to smaller manufacturers in all 50 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. Through MEP, manufacturers have access to more than 2,000 manufacturing and business “coaches” whose job is to help firms make changes that lead to greater productivity, increased profits and enhanced global competitiveness. For more information, please visit www.massmep.org, or phone 781-376-0028.

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