Virginia Biotechnology Association

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Virginia Council on Advanced Technology Skills

www.VaCATS.org

DOL Award Media Release

Media Release: Project Wins Southern Growth Policies Board Award

Project Background:

The Virginia Council on Advanced Technology Skills will:

  • Establish a statewide system of competency-based and employer-validated skill standards and assessments for advanced manufacturing technicians;
  • Conduct an outreach, recruitment and screening campaign designed to increase public awareness of the exciting array of career opportunities in Virginia’s leading-edge, science- and technology-intensive advanced manufacturing companies;
  • Develop a competency-based training program that will be designed by ten major employers within this part of Virginia’s advanced manufacturing economy;
  • Demonstrate, refine, and obtain employer validation for the effectiveness of the training program; and,
  • Encourage widespread adoption of the training design at learning labs throughout the Commonwealth.

The Need Being Addressed. The project offers a statewide solution to a critical and growing skill shortage in Virginia. With more than 100,000 retirements among manufacturing workers anticipated over the next ten years, including 45,000 technically skilled workers, Virginia is currently failing to qualify their replacements. Virginia can retain many of these jobs, and create the potential new ones in leading-technology companies in biotechnology and other life-science-based advanced manufacturing subsectors, only if we find a solution to developing the large numbers of highly skilled workers these companies need now and in the years ahead.

The Partnership. The project is co-led by the Virginia Biotechnology Association, Virginia Manufacturers Association, and Training & Development Corporation. Employers that are partnering and co-investing in the project include: Alcoa, Boehringer Ingelheim Chemicals, Merck, Micron Technologies, Novozymes Biologicals, Philip Morris, and Wyeth Pharmaceuticals. Other principal partners include MdBio (the Maryland biotechnology association), Virginia Community College System, Virginia Career Education Foundation, Virginia Department of Business Assistance, and the Capital Area, Northern Virginia, and Richmond Workforce Investment Boards.

Skill Standards and Assessment for Advanced Manufacturing Technicians. By creating a system for certifying three levels of qualification for jobs in advanced manufacturing (Certified Manufacturing Specialist, and Level 1 and Level 2 Manufacturing Technician), the project will increase the efficiency of job search and recruitment in this segment of the labor market—lowering the costs and increasing the effectiveness of matches between applicants and employers. Applicants with certificates will be able to post resumes on readily accessible websites and have their names and contact information posted in the state’s skill bank. Employers will be able to send clearer signals about their hiring needs by specifying necessary skill certifications or equivalents.

Outreach, Recruitment and Screening Campaign. An information campaign will be designed to raise public awareness of the exciting nature and quality of career opportunities currently available in the biosciences and advanced manufacturing, and to guide interested individuals to sources of additional information regarding these opportunities on websites and at career centers and community colleges. A pilot group of career centers in central and northern Virginia will provide recruiting and screening support to help employers find qualified job applicants and prospective trainees who are interested in pursuing careers in advanced manufacturing.

Employer-Designed and -Validated Training Program. The project’s training program design will provide a competency-based means for interested job seekers to gain required skills and qualify for high-wage jobs in advanced manufacturing. The ten employers who are principal partners and co-investors in the project will work closely with the three lead organizations to create a production-learning lab program that will be competency-based and will be designed using principles of lean manufacturing. Individuals who complete the program will qualify for a Level 1 Manufacturing Technician certification and will be placed at the front of the hiring line and interviewed for employment by any of the employers in the project partnership, as well as others that recognize the certification.

Building on Prior Projects. Other projects, both in Virginia and nationally, have produced results that will provide useful starting points for the Virginia project. This project will draw extensively on this earlier work and focus our efforts where additional development is needed to address the particular needs of our state’s advanced manufacturers.

Building a Systemic Solution. U.S. Department of Labor funding provides the seed resources to create a systemic solution. However, no individual project of this magnitude can, by itself, fund sufficient capacity and training to fully satisfy the needs of Virginia’s leading-edge manufacturing employers. As soon as the training program design is operating and validated by employers, the two employer associations and other project partners will seek support from the legislature to fund a network of learning-lab sites throughout the Commonwealth – at community colleges, technical high schools, proprietary schools, and stand-alone lab sites that adopt the program design. This statewide network, in turn, will work with employers in their respective areas to ensure that sufficient numbers of certified manufacturing technicians are available to meet their staffing needs.

Anticipated Impact. The project will create tools, systems, and an enlarged capacity to meet the needs for technically qualified production workers among employers in advanced and biotechnology manufacturing. Establishing certification standards and assessments, making them readily available throughout the Commonwealth, building an efficient training mechanism for acquiring necessary skills, and informing the public of these opportunities, will create fundamentally new mechanisms to attract, qualify, and recruit needed workers into this critical sector of Virginia’s economy.

Other specific training and certification outcomes anticipated as a result of the project include:

  • Training and certifying 60 new Level 1 Manufacturing Technicians through the project’s training program, and 60 at the Certified Manufacturing Specialist qualification level;
  • Recruiting, screening and employing an additional 250 qualified employees for the industry through the outreach, recruitment and screening collaboration with the state’s career centers and community colleges (including an additional 60 Level 1 Certified Manufacturing Technicians); and,
  • Establishing, with support from the legislature, a network of 20 production learning lab programs at strategic locations throughout the state with a total capacity to train and certify 800-1,200 Level 1 Technicians annually, and to continue recruiting and matching with jobs 600-800 additional qualified workers at the three skill thresholds for which certifications will be available.

By improving Virginia’s capacity to prepare and qualify workers for technical production jobs, the project will fundamentally improve the ability of Virginia’s bioscience and advanced manufacturing employers, and the growing numbers of workers they hire, to prosper and contribute to the economic well-being of the Commonwealth.