One Voice | Government Advocacy for the Metalworking Industry

Washington, DC: Ongoing efforts by the U.S. manufacturing industry to develop the workforce of tomorrow received a significant boost this week with the announcement by the U.S. Department of Labor of $183.8 million in workforce development grants to help create and promote partnerships among educational institutions, companies and trade associations. The grants, together with the Labor Department’s announcement of plans to award an additional $100 million in grants to further promote apprenticeships, were applauded today by the National Tooling and Machining Association (NTMA) and the Precision Metalforming Association (PMA).

“There will be an estimated two million vacant manufacturing jobs by 2025 and the industry cannot close this gap on its own,” said PMA President David Klotz. “The federal programs announced today mean that the government is listening to our message that, for manufacturing to continue to drive the U.S. economy, this country must invest in helping manufacturers attract and train the next generation of workers. We encourage Congress to provide funding to expand these types of programs.”

“We are proud that in Arizona, NTMA is a recipient of one of the Labor Department’s workforce development grants,” said NTMA Interim President Doug DeRose. “NTMA and its chapters have made workforce development a top priority issue for more than a decade and these grants will help our efforts to close the skills gap in our industry. We applaud the Trump administration for continuing to make manufacturing and closing the skills gap top priorities.”

The Labor Department also made public a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking to establish a process for the Department to advance the development of industry-recognized apprenticeship programs (IRAPs) that would enable manufacturing associations and others to apply to the federal government to obtain the ability to certify apprenticeships themselves.

NTMA through its National Tooling and Machining Association Foundation and PMA through the Precision Metalforming Association Educational Foundation have spent millions of dollars over the years supporting workforce development programs and providing grants throughout the United States to attract, train and retain workers in the manufacturing industry. The associations look forward to working with local partners and national stakeholders such as the National Institute for Metalworking Skills to promote manufacturing careers, train American workers and develop a next generation of manufacturers.

More information about the Department of Labor announcements can be found here.

---

About One Voice: The Precision Metalforming Association (PMA) and the National Tooling and Machining Association (NTMA)’s combined “One Voice” federal government advocacy program represents nearly 2,500 metalworking companies and is designed to promote U.S. government policies that will ensure a strong manufacturing sector in the United States. For additional information, please visit www.metalworkingadvocate.org