New Initiatives

As part of the Advanced Manufacturing Partnership, the National Robotics Initiative seeks to boost America's high-tech manufacturing sector by enhancing human capabilities, performance and safety.

Rogue Valley manufacturing businesses have recently benefitted from a successful private/public training partnership with Rogue Community College, and the Rogue Valley Workforce Development Council, through its “PowerUp” initiative.

The Manufacturing Institute, the education and workforce affiliate of the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM), has launched a national initiative to integrate the worker credentials needed by industry into post-secondary degree programs offered in community colleges. Through support from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the NAM-Endorsed Manufacturing Skills Certification System will prepare students, particularly low-income young adults and transitioning workers, with entry-level skills necessary to succeed in advanced manufacturing careers.

Post-secondary credentials have become a fundamental prerequisite for economic success. Research supports that adults 25 and older with at least an associate’s degree have an average earnings 30% higher than those of high school graduates with an additional educational credentials.

“We need to engage kids in learning and we need to give them options,” said NAM President John Engler. “Moving industry-recognized skills certifications into community college programs will provide meaningful, relevant education for students and ultimately produce a more highly skilled and mobile workforce – making us more competitive in the global economy.

The NAM-Endorsed System initially focuses on the core, basic skills required for entry-level workers in all sectors of manufacturing, and addresses personal effectiveness competencies, foundational academic competencies, general workplace skills and industry-wide technical skills. Entry-level science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) skills are included in the system.

The NAM system organizes individual certification programs designed and validated by ACT (National Readiness Certificate), the Manufacturing Skill Standards Council (MSSC); the American Welding Society (AWS), the National Institute of Metalworking Skills (NIMS) and the Society of Manufacturing Engineers (SME) into a national structure creating scalable educational pathways with “stackable” credentials leading to an associates degree.

Four community colleges (Shoreline in Washington, Forsythe Technical in North Carolina, Alamo in Texas and Lorain in Ohio) are the first to begin implementation. For more information go to NAM Certification System.

The Enterprise for Employment and Education (Marion, Polk, Yamhill Counties) and the Linn, Benton, Lincoln Workforce Investment Board received a Cluster Partnership planning grant to continue efforts to develop workforce solutions for five regional industry consortia – bioscience, food processing, metals, secondary woods, and high performance/lean manufacturing. Each consortium has identified some or all of these common areas of concern: current workforce skills, a skilled pipeline, recruitment struggles (to the area/industry), resources, work readiness/soft skills, and flexible/affordable access to relevant training.

Under the guidance of the Cluster Partnership Committee, the three main strategies of the planning effort are to:

1. Explore expansion of the Metals Entry Level Credential Program.
2. Provide access to on-site, low cost (to employers) skills advancement training for current manufacturing workforce to advance manufacturing skills and attain promotions.
3. Campaign to change the industry image through outreach to schools, community colleges, business leaders, government leaders, parents, counselors, and the community; being mindful to include the image of Oregon and the Mid-Valley as a viable manufacturing center in these sectors. This may include DVDs, campaign materials, etc.

Now several months into the two-year plan, activities are well under way:

• The Metals Entry Level Credential Program has been expanded in its use. Currently the Program is being used in nine cities across six counties with high school students and out of school and incarcerated youth.
• The secondary woods sector is replicating the model by developing a new Secondary Woods Entry Level Credential Program. The Program will include old Secondary Woods training content which will be converted to e-learning. In addition, new hands-on industry-specific exercises are being developed and will be integrated into the training curriculum.
• Incumbent workforce research is ongoing with the bioscience and food processing sectors to explore needs and the viability of similar approaches for those sectors.
• Lean / High Performance topics will be embedded in curriculum across industries.
• A marketing and outreach task force has been developed and will remain in force throughout the rest of the grant period.

For more information, please contact Karen Litvin at (503) 581-4272; klitvin@workforce-solutions.net.

Ask most Oregon manufacturers about the search for qualified, trainable manufacturing employees, and they may tell you that it takes more than HR — it takes equal parts FBI and ESP. But, the Oregon Career Readiness Certificate (CRC), in affiliation with the National Career Readiness Certificate (NCRC), is at work to change that.
Cascade Steel Rolling Mills, in McMinnville, and Heinz Frozen Foods, in Ontario, are two of the nineteen Oregon employers that have embraced the CRC. The CRC offers them a tool for finding, training, and promoting the right employees. Each is the largest private employer in their local area. Each is considered a premium employer by jobseekers in their communities. At either company, when a job announcement is posted, their respective HR department is immediately flooded with applicants. The Oregon Career Ready system of job analysis, employee skill-building, assessment, training, and national credentialing is helping them take the guesswork out of hiring, and saving them time and money.
National data shows that the CRC can give participating employers a competitive-edge as it:

• Reduces screening time – saving time by interviewing only the applicants with the skills required for a company’s jobs.
• Reduces employee turnover – assisting employees in attaining precisely the skills they need to thrive and move up within an organization.
• Reduces employee training costs – Saving money and time by targeting training and development budget on employees with skill gaps
• Protects the bottom line with a comprehensive, legally compliant (EEOC, ADA, and ISO) solution developed by ACT for selection, promotion, recruitment and training.

Oregon manufacturers have already signed on as Employer Partner to the CRC because it verifies applicants’ foundational job skills AND complies with the EEOC Uniform Guidelines on Employee Selection Procedures, As Employer Partners, these businesses have committed to using the CRC as an element of their hiring, training, and promotion practices. Their need for stronger applicant pools and a legally-compliant solution to meet hiring and promotion requirements are a strong impetus. But, in the current economic climate, a growing part of the story is how the CRC helps with “career-laddering” for existing employees and with quickly sorting through mountains of applications to identify jobseekers with essential skills for success on the job.

Elaine Crawley, Career Readiness Coordinator for the Department of Community Colleges and Workforce Development (CCWD) in Oregon, explains the CRC’s history in our state.

“The Oregon Career Readiness Certificate supports the strategic plans of the Governor, the Oregon Workforce Investment Board (OWIB), and the Oregon Business Council. Early funding for the program grew out of skill-building priorities supported by the OWIB.

The first project began when Lebanon High School wanted to use the CRC program. But they also wanted to make sure employers recognized the CRC and would ask for it, so it would have value to students,” she explains. “Without hesitation, 5 local manufacturers signed on as partners: Allann Bros Coffee, Oregon Freeze Dry, Palm Harbor Homes, Pennington Seed, and Weyerhaeuser Lumber Mills. From there it was a matter of pointing people on both ends to resources, like the formal job profiles and the skills assessment process.”

Since then, Oregon Career Ready has grown in scope. Sponsored by the State of Oregon, it is currently available at no cost to employers and jobseekers in selected areas. As Crawley explains it, businesses (such as manufacturers) can become partners to the CRC in three ways: they can recognize the CRC when applicants present it, they can specifically request and prefer it during hiring, training, and promotion processes, or they can require it as a qualification to get a job.

“The Oregon CRC program offers skills-building tools through the Worldwide Interactive Network, or WIN,” she says. “Users can self-learn, be coached through the online courses, or take classes offered at community colleges or workshops at WorkSource Oregon centers. They can even plug their CRC skills levels into the WIN network and be shown specific job titles they’re qualified for, or see what gaps exist in their skills in terms of qualifying for jobs they want.”
Oregon Career Ready is based on ACT’s WorkKeys® assessments that measure foundational job skills. To earn the credential, an individual must take three proctored assessments: Reading for Information, Applied Mathematics, and Locating Information. These assessments are different than most others. They test the skills required for more than 85 percent of all jobs today, and offer workplace-based skills measurements that place incumbent or prospective workers on a common scale.
To learn more about Oregon Career Ready, or to become an Employer Partner for the Oregon CRC, contact:
Elaine Crawley, Coordinator for the Oregon Career Readiness Certificate
Community Colleges and Workforce Development
255 Capitol Street NE
Salem, OR 97310-1300
503 378-8648 ext 291
Elaine.Crawley@state.or.us