Productive Concept Grant Supports Skills Testing, Training for Production Workers
Factories across Wisconsin, and eventually across the country, soon will start using a skills training and assessment tool designed by MATC.		Milwaukee Area Technical College has received a $446,400 grant from the U.S. Department of Labor to implement online skills testing, certification and training for manufacturing production employees. By creating standardized skill sets for the manufacturing workforce, the goal is to recruit and train skilled workers, improve productivity and increase job portability for the individual worker. This continued funding came about in part thanks to the support of U.S. Sen. Herb Kohl. In 2005, the labor department funded an
MATC pilot project to develop an online testing system. The $446,000 grant is intended to underwrite the cost of putting the system into practice in actual factories in Wisconsin. Proponents are pushing for adoption nationwide, in all sectors of manufacturing. The initiative takes place against a backdrop of continued concern for the future of manufacturing in the U.S. Employers need to increase productivity to compete in the global markeplace. Related to that issue, MATC also is building the Center for Energy Conservation and Advanced Manufacturing at its Oak Creek Campus.
Harley Davidson CEO Jim McCaslin gives a presentation about WisPASS to the State Council on Workforce Investment.		Beginning this fall, the Wisconsin Performance and Assessment of Skill Standards (WisPASS) program will implement the MSSC (Manufacturing Skill Standards Council) Production Technician Certification initiative statewide. MATC is lead agency. Eight more institutions will offer the testing - the University of Wisconsin-Stout and seven Wisconsin technical colleges: Moraine Park, Gateway, Waukesha County, Chippewa Valley, Northeast, Mid-State and North Central.
The MSSC System awards Production Technician Certification to new and incumbent workers who pass four manufacturing related modules: Manufacturing Processes and Production, Quality Assurance, Maintenance Awareness and Safety. Before testing, workers have the option of taking a 12-hour online training session in each module, along with six hours of general orientation. Wanted: 'Knowledge Workers' Jim McCaslin, board chair of the national MSSC and president and chief operating officer of Harley Davidson Motor Company, said, “The MSSC System provides industry with a new set of tools to ensure that both entering and incumbent workers are flexible, easily trainable and highly motivated ‘knowledge workers’ in the high-performance work organizations of the 21st century.”  The MSSC assessments require mastery of subjects such as math, science, reading, writing, communications, information technology, analysis, problem-solving, teamwork, organization, planning and basic technical skills, all in a manufacturing context. For more information, please call Dale Dulberger at (414) 297-7296 or visit www.matc.edu/WisPass.