Multiple educational providers in the area offer the program’s courses in safety, quality practices and measurement, manufacturing processes and production, maintenance awareness, and green production. The classes teach entry-level, standardized skills to help people find jobs in the industry.
Upon completion of four courses — not including green production — students become a Certified Production Technician.
The 50,000th credential was a reason to celebrate as the program gains more momentum nationwide. The Manufacturing Skill Standards Council was created to address a skills gap between companies saying it’s difficult to find qualified workers, and workers who are unemployed or laid off from their previous job looking for new work.
Some local manufacturing employers including Hamilton machine shop Tipco Punch will guarantee a job interview to anyone with the certification, but awareness of the program is a problem, said Leo Reddy, chief executive of the council.
Certified Production Technicians have a common set of skills and by completing the course, prove they can show up for work everyday, said Scott Ellsworth, Tipco Punch vice president of U.S. operations.
“It’s not just what they learned, but it’s the fact they were committed to learn” that makes them attractive hires, said Ellsworth.
Kessler, 27, was honorably discharged from the U.S. Navy this year. He worked seven years as a naval firefighter, but could not find a job as a firefighter at home.
He enrolled in Get Skills to Work, a program offering the Certified Production Technician courses to veterans at Cincinnati State Technical and Community College. Cincinnati State partners on the program with General Electric and others.
Rick Franceschina started a welding job in July at GE Aviation supplier Unison Industries after getting his production certification through Get Skills to Work.
“Who would have thought at 55-years-old I would get a job at GE?” said Franceschina, a Navy veteran previously laid-off from construction work.
The Manufacturing Skill Standards Council is based in the Washington, D.C., area and also offers a Certified Logistics Technician program for the distribution industry.
Additional educators and social service agencies offering these courses are: Great Oaks, Butler Technology and Career Development Schools, Cincinnati-Hamilton County Community Action Agency, the Urban League of Greater Cincinnati, and Easter Seals TriState.
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