Leo Reddy Chairman of MSSC Provides Recommendations for Florida Manufacturers

Asked for guidance on how Florida manufacturers could secure a durable future pipeline of

CPT-credentialed job applicants, Leo Reddy, Chairman and CEO of the Manufacturing Skill Standards Council provided a summary of his meetings to FLATE and several regional Florida Manufacturing Associations. These included: Mid-Florida Manufacturers Association, South Florida Manufacturers Association, Bay Area Manufacturers Association, and Northwest Florida Manufacturers Association. Reddy shared that this “opportunity and warm reception helps explain why Florida now ranks second among the forty-nine states in which MSSC offers its training and credentialing services.”

• Most Florida manufacturers are concerned over their ability to secure a reliable pipeline of higher skilled, strongly motivated production workers to deal with higher turnover rates and the growing number of retirees.
• Most see the value of MSSC-certified job applicants as a recruitment screening tool.
• Most would offer a paid summer internship program for students who pass at least one or two of the four CPT Modules (Safety; Quality & Measurement; Manufacturing Processes & Production; and Maintenance Awareness).
• Some are using CPT also as a basic training and benchmarking tool for incumbent workers.

In addition to providing the insights outlined above, Reddy also addressed FLATE’s National Visiting Committee members and educators at the Florida Engineering Technology Forum. As a leading organization promoting technician training and education in Florida, FLATE has been invited to present to the MSSC Executive Briefing on June 16 in Atlanta, GA, to present Florida’s MSSC strategy. The briefing is a free event that seeks to engage industry and education policy decision-makers in the Southeast. Other Florida organizations that will be attending the Briefing include Tallahassee Community College which will be sharing information about its prison training program. MSSC looks forward to deepening its productive collaboration with the impressive group of Florida Regional Manufacturing Associations who are doing so much to keep manufacturing in the forefront of the state's economic growth and development. 

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FLATE has embedded the MSSC Skills Standards into the Engineering Technology A.S./A.A.S technical core. The ET Core consists of 18 credit hours and covers the following 6 areas: CADD, Electronics, Measurements, Processes, Quality, Safety. Once completing these courses. students in the ET Degree program can earn an 18 credit hour college certificate. They will also be prepared to take the MSSC skills tests, so can earn the national certification as well. Additionally, FLATE crafted the statewide articulation agreement that provides articulation of 15 credits of the ET Core (Electronics, Measurements, and Processes, Quality, and Safety) to the A.S./A.A.S. Engineering Technology Degree anywhere in the state. For more information visit http://fl-ate.org/programs/mssc-skills, or contact Dr. Marilyn Barger at barger@fl-ate.org.