Interim Final Report

The project to develop a Competency-Based Apprenticeship System for the Advance Manufacturing Industry has achieved unmitigated success. The project met and exceeded the original stated goal; to establish a more economical, rational, effective, and efficient competency-based apprenticeship system that overcomes the problems of the time-based apprenticeship model and builds on the time-tested National Institute for Metalworking Skills (NIMS) skill standards and credentialing system for the metalworking occupations.

The six companies that initially agreed to pilot the system grew to over thirty companies representing the major manufacturing regions of America. The establishment of these competency-based apprenticeship programs has served over 300 new apprentices and became the model for nationwide implementation of Competency-Based Apprenticeship.

Accomplishments and deliverables include:

1. The development of a “Competency Web,” consistent with NIMS skill standards, which identifies the apprenticeable occupations, identifies and defines the competencies required for each occupation, and defines the paths to move up within an occupational area or move across to another. The Competency web created a seamless career development lattice for the metalworking industry.
2. The development of curriculum guides based on the industry’s four major occupational areas (metalforming, machining, die making and machine building).
3. The development of an implementation guide to assist project staff to establish apprenticeship programs, and, to serve as a template that a company, a trade association, a training provider, or a government apprenticeship agency can follow in establishing or helping to establish apprenticeship programs.
4. The development of National Guideline Standards for Apprenticeship to direct the competency-based apprenticeship programs for the following occupations:
• Machinist
• Machine Builder
• Press Setup/Operator – Stamping
• CNC Setup/Programmer – Turning
• CNC Setup/Programmer – Milling
• CNC Setup/Programmer – Milling and Turning.
5. NIMS also developed and conducted a program to train staff of the Office of Apprenticeship of the U.S. Department of Labor’s Employment and Training Administration. This training program supplied Office of Apprenticeship staff with the knowledge they need to implement the apprenticeship system nationwide.
6. The registration of eight competency-based programs with the Department of Labor, Office of Apprenticeship.
7. The development of an Articulation Agreement with Marshall University to award 42 post-secondary credits for NIMS apprentices on a nationwide basis.
8. NIMS defined occupations that meet the needs of the varied industry sectors. For high-volume manufacturing facilities, NIMS identified the competencies and developed the credentials for basic CNC operation. The competencies and credentials for machinist and CNC setup/program typify the broad range of knowledge and skill required in a jobbing shop.
9. Achieved national industry consensus on the requirements for a Journey level machinist.
10. Achieved national industry consensus on the competencies that establish a Machinist’s requirements as core to the job functions of a tool and die maker, a mold maker, a machine builder, and a toolmaker.

As expected, the transformation of a 60-year-old industry is a slow process. The need to move from a time-based to a competency-based training system is broadly accepted as truth in light of the economic pressures of outsourcing and the boom in technology. An agile, technology savvy workforce has become imperative to success in American manufacturing. Further, a time-based, long-term apprenticeship program does not appeal to young, ambitious, motivated workers who can develop and demonstrate the desired competencies more quickly than others. Competency-based apprenticeship addresses the challenge, but a greater challenge exists in creating synergy between the industry, education, and workforce development partners.

The products and models that we have developed are instrumental to the transformation of manufacturing training. But they are only effective inasmuch as the NIMS partners engage in coalition building to implement the system and tools.

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania provides a demonstration of a successful NIMS coalition. The Pittsburgh Chapter of the National Tooling and Machining Association (NTMA) and a local workforce agency, New Century Careers, collaborated to bring together 13 companies to pilot the competency-based apprenticeship system. Two medium sized local employers, Penn United and Oberg Industries, bought in to the NIMS competency-based system and demonstrated dynamic training and employee development by using the NIMS competency-based system. A local industry feeder school, Westmorland Community College, signed an articulation agreement with NIMS to offer college credit for NIMS credentials.

These collaborative efforts fostered a NIMS community that will continue to recruit and train highly skilled workers, assure the demand for machining classes in the local schools, and bolster the local economy by increasing industry capacity. The Pittsburgh model is duplicable and represents the pathway to national implementation of competency-based apprenticeship.

This project demonstrated that the industry generally has difficulty providing structured on-the-job (OJT) training. Effective on-the-job training is essential to a successful competency-based apprenticeship program. This need gave birth to the Flexible Training Options Project (FLEX) that NIMS is currently undertaking. FLEX has identified the core competencies for OJT training in the production environment.

Part of the OJT challenge is providing the wide range of company profiles with a packaged solution. Plug-and-play training programs must be highly adaptive and intuitive for busy manufacturing facilities to implement.

The project also demonstrated that the industry needs incentive to engage in registered apprenticeship training.