Final Notice: June 16-17 Executive Briefing
 MSSC is most pleased to have had so many of you register to attend our June 16-17 Executive Briefing at Ivy Tech Community College on Industry Certifications: Closing Manufacturing Skills Gap in Great Lakes Region. For those of you still interested in registering, please click here for the final Executive Briefing program and this Ivy Tech Registration Link. Please note: Registration will close June 10. In addition, you are invited to attend the VIP networking buffet-reception on the evening of June 16 (5:30pm-8:00pm at the JW Marriott) prior to the Briefing on June 17. Please email your RSVP to attend the reception to Catherine Feeney, Community Outreach Manager, MSSC, at cfeeney@msscusa.org by June 10, 2015. As mentioned before, there is no cost to attend on June 16 or 17. You will just need to cover your own travel expenses. The discounted rate for Tuesday, June 16 has been SOLD OUT. There are rooms still available at the regular hotel rate for that night. For further questions and hotel reservations, please contact Catherine Feeney, Community Outreach Manager at cfeeney@msscusa.org.
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Introducing MSSC Veteran Employer Connector
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| | In honor of Military Appreciation Month MSSC is excited to introduce to you our new Veteran-Employer Career Connector program designed to connect employers to industry certified Military and Veterans in transportation, distribution, & logistics (TDL). Please click here to register! |
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LeeSa Page joins MSSC as Senior Advisor
 As part of a new state strategy, the MSSC would like to introduce Ms. LeeSa Page, Senior Advisor to our MSSC community. Her primary role will be to facilitate collaborative efforts to more broadly implement CPT and CLT certification in the state of Kentucky. She will work with the business community, education and others to increase awareness and use of the certification programs.
LeeSa is not new to the MSSC - from 1997-2005, she served as lead staff and then Co-Director of the MSSC overseeing the development of the standards and assessments, convening employers, education, government agencies, associations and labor.
LeeSa lives in Louisville, KY with her husband and two children. She's looking forward to working with MSSC.
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 PUBLIC POLICY NEWS | |
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White House announces new support for Upskill Initiative
 On April 24th, Administration announced new commitments in support of President Obama's Upskill Initiative to empower incumbent workers with education and training.
100 employers commit to help millions of front-line workers climb up the career ladder and earn higher wages.
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Leo Reddy pens article for U.S. Tech on tools to close the "Skills Gap"
 MSSC CEO, Leo Reddy, was asked to contribute an article in this month's edition, "U.S. Tech", a global online publication for US technology manufacturers, entitled, "MSSC: Powerful Nationwide Tools to Help Close the "Skills Gap".
In the article, Mr. Reddy describes that, "the major barrier ... is the acute and growing shortage of workers with the skills needed to keep pace with technological change...84 percent of manufacturing executives surveyed agree that there's a talent shortage in manufacturing".
He goes on to note that MSSC is a powerful tool in closing the "Skills Gap" as it is "...now the nation's leading industry-led training, assessment and certification organization focused on the industry-wide core technical competencies needed by production and material handling workers... and applies to all front-line manufacturing production jobs (6 million) and all front-line material handling and distribution jobs (6.1 million)."
Please click here for the full U.S.Tech article.
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| JOB TRENDS | |
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Is the great robot job takeover a myth?
According to Workforce Watch by IndustryWeek, "a dystopia populated by robots doing the work of humans may make for great cinema, but in real life, human manufacturing labor hasn't been replaced in a robot coup", say Brookings Institution scholars Scott Andes and Mark Muro.
Andes and Muro use a March study out of London's Center for Economic Research as a jumping-off point to compare job growth in manufacturing around the world with growth in use of robots. The London study, Robots at Work, finds that robots' impact on the gross domestic product is similar to that of the steam engine and U.S. highways, when those innovations were new.
For instance, Andes and Muro write, Germany uses three times as many robots per hour worked than the United States, yet lost only 19 percent of its manufacturing jobs between 1996 and 2012, after robots were introduced into the workforce.
Please click here for the full IndustryWeek article.
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| NEWS FROM THE MSSC COMMUNITY | |
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Manufacturing certification available to high school students
Seniors across Mayes County will soon be looking for jobs. Good jobs. With great pay and benefits. And most of them have no idea that those jobs can be found outside their back door within the manufacturing industry at MidAmerica Industrial Park. But one does.
Jeffrey Helmuth, a high school senior at Pryor High School and one of the recently announced Valedictorians of the 2015 graduating class, knows those opportunities exist and he wants to stay here.
This class" is the Certified Production Technician (CPT) certification program at Oklahoma State University Institute of Technology (OSUIT) Advanced Training Center in the MidAmerica Industrial Park where Jeffrey is also receiving high school credit while participating in the semester-long program. OSUIT now offers this nationally recognized certification thanks to a grant from the Department of Labor that focuses on technical training for workers to achieve high-skill, high-wage jobs.
Please click here for the full OSUIT article.
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MJC offers two drought relief programs including CLA/CLT
 Modesto Junior College (MJC) offers two Drought Relief Training programs funded through legislation signed into law in 2014 by Governor Jerry Brown.
MJC offers both irrigation technician training and logistics and warehouse technician training at no cost to eligible participants. The logistics and warehouse technician training is geared toward assisting those who need to train for new employment due to the drought.
The program teaches skills needed for employment as warehouse technicians and/or lift truck (forklift) operators, and includes training in sit-down, stand-up and reach lift trucks and safety, inventory control and scan gun use. It includes, Manufacturing Skill Standards Council (MSSC) Certified Logistics Associate and Certified Logistics Technician, vocational English as a second language, basic computer literacy, basic math, and Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) 10 and CPR/First Aid certification. Classes are currently being offered weekday afternoons and Saturdays.
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UB TCIE designated as an MSSC assessment center
University of Buffalo (UB) TCIE is now designated as a Manufacturing Skill Standards Council (MSSC) assessment center. As an authorized testing location, UB TCIE will administer MSSC exams that measure core competencies.
"Our goal in partnering with MSSC is to contribute to shaping a new generation of workforce and education strategies," said Timothy Leyh, UB TCIE executive director.
"We feel strongly that becoming an MSSC assessment center gives our community a significant advantage, as it provides individuals with greater leverage in securing higher-wage jobs and employers with better insight into worker proficiency."
Please click to view the full Buffalo News article.
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Southern Hills CTC completes CPT class
 Southern Hills Career and Technical Center (CTC), in conjunction with the University of Cincinnati East, held a reception ceremony and employment fair for the eight completers of the Certified Production Technology program on April 14.
The curriculum taught was that of the Manufacturing Skill Standards Council Certified Production Technician program.
MSSC assesses core understanding of the key work activities and core technical knowledge and skills needed in high-performance manufacturing, as defined by MSSC Production Skill Standards.
After months working on the project, Adult Education Director Vicki Carrington was able to procure grant funding for the first class from Partners for a Competitive Workforce. Mark Farley, an employee of Milacron, is the instructor for the CPT program. Farley successfully completed the MSSC training and obtained certification in all areas to be able to instruct the class.
Please click here for the full Southern Hills article.
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