NIMS, the metalworking industry’s premier standards and skill certification body, announced that it awarded a record number of credentials last year to individuals seeking to enter into or advance in jobs in the industry. In 2015, NIMS issued 21,420 industry-recognized credentials, resulting in a 20% increase in credentials issued in the United States from 2014.
NIMS has worked with education, industry and workforce development leadership for over twenty years to develop top manufacturing talent. Focused on certifying a skilled workforce for the global economy, NIMS works to ensure all individuals entering the workforce are equipped with the skills needed to be successful on the job from day one. This process includes strong partnerships and collaboration with industry trade associations, which have invested in and supported the development of NIMS standards and credentials.
NIMS has developed skills standards ranging from entry-level to master-level that cover the breadth of metalworking operations and industrial technology maintenance. NIMS certifies individuals’ skills against these national standards via credentials that companies can use to recruit, hire, place, and promote individual workers. Schools and employer training programs incorporate the credentials as performance and completion measures to deliver high quality training to industry standards. NIMS will soon add credentials in Industrial Technology Maintenance and Computer-Aided Manufacturing (CAM) to its portfolio of offerings in 2016-2017.