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What is NIMS?
The National Institute for Metalworking Skills is a nonprofit organization formed in 1995 to support the development of a skilled workforce for the metalworking industry. Through the NIMS credentialing program, individuals -- both workers and students -- will be able to certify their skills against industry standards. These standards are benchmarks of excellence for metalworkers and their employers.
Six key trade associations in the industry, in partnership with individual companies, three international worker organizations, eight Midwestern states, educators, and workers, spearheaded the development of these national industry skill standards. Spurred by a national initiative of the U.S. Departments of Labor and Education, this industry-led partnership links workers, employers, trainers, and educators across the country in an effort to clearly define and continuously update the skill requirements of the industry. These trade associations created NIMS to:
- Continue the development of the skill standards and maintain them so they stay up-to-date with industry requirements.
- Design and administer the credentialing program so that individuals can voluntarily certify their competencies against skill standards.
- Increase awareness and use of skill standards by the industry and by schools, colleges, and training programs.
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What Are Industry Skill Standards?
Industry skill standards define competence for workers in the metalworking industry by describing the common duties and the knowledge, skills, abilities, and related attributes needed to do the work well. These standards were developed by the industry and represent the industry's benchmarks of performance. Together, they define the skills and training framework for the metalworking industry.
The framework includes 21 industry skill standards within four industry clusters:
- Machining
- Metalforming
- Machine tool building and maintenance
- Tool and die moldmaking
The Level I Machining Skills represent the common core for the industry upon which the other skill standards are based.
To date, seven skill standards have been developed, written and validated through nationwide industry surveys and regional forums of employers and workers:
- Machining (3 levels)
- Metal stamping (2 levels)
- Roll forming (1 level)
- Metal spinning (1 level)
NIMS has successfully piloted written and performance tests for the Level I Machining Skill Standards that will form the basis for its credentialing program. Test development for the other standards is underway.
Four additional skill standards have already been published in summer 1996. These include two levels of machine building and two levels of screw machining. Ten additional standards are in development for release between late 1996 and early 1997.
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How are the Standards Being Used?
These standards are already being used by employers and in educational programs across the country. The machining skill standards, particularly Level I, are being implemented in high schools and community colleges in Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota. Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee and Wisconsin.
The Norton Manufacturing Company has achieved national recognition for its implementation of the machining skill standard working with the local community college and the vocational high school. They have included an adult program at night for current workers. Six local employers have since followed Norton's lead.
Ohio's Office of Workforce Development and Economic Development have formed a partnership with NIMS to begin another first: the implementation of the newly released metal stamping skill standards in cooperation with the local community college and companies in Springfield, Ohio.
NIMS is pleased to include among its many partners the Council of Great Lakes Governors. The governors of the eight states have been fully supportive of NIMS since its inception. Their letter of support
clearly endorses the progress NIMS has made in creating a system of skill standards for metalworking occupations.
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NIMS Certifications
 The
training program at Vanguard Career Center in Fremont, Ohio, has earned
its NIMS site certification for teaching to the NIMS skill standards. From
the left: Dave Sansone, PMA Educational Foundation Executive Director,
presents the NIMS plaque to Jack Wobser, machining instructor, Terry
Clark, Director, and Robert Brickner, Superintendent. For information
about NIMS program certification, go to www.nims-skills.org.
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Where Do I Get More Information?
For more information on NIMS or to find out how you can get involved, call or write:
Steve Mandes
National Institute for Metalworking Skills
3251 Old Lee Hwy., Suite 205
Fairfax, Virginia 22030
Phone: (703) 352-4971
Fax: (703) 352-4991
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NIMS Association Partners
American Machine Tool Distributors Association
(AMTDA)
American Mold Builders Association (AMBA)
Association for Manufacturing Technology (AMT)
Council of Great Lakes Governors (CLG)
Human Resources Development Institute/AFL-CIO
International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM)
National Tooling and Machining Association (NTMA)
Precision Machined Products Association (PMPA)
Precision Metalforming Association (PMA)
Society of Plastics Engineers, Inc. - Moldmakers’ Division
(SPE)
Society of the Plastics Industries, Inc. (SPI)
Tooling and Manufacturing Association (TMA)
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