Community Update June 2021

MSSC Updates Register Now for the MSSC Executive Briefing July 22  MSSC First Annual Virtual Instructors Conference August 19 Policy & Trends White House Shares Full Budget Infrastructure Agreement Released Reshoring Rose Significantly in 2020 ED Holds Virtual Roundtable on Providing Pell Grants for Incarcerated Individuals House Holds Hearing on WIOA Reauthorization ED Releases New Information on Stimulus Funds 2021 Condition of Education Report Released Events National Leadership Symposium MSSC Annual Leadership Meetings About MSSC Certifying over 100,000 candidates, the Manufacturing Skill Standards Council (MSSC) ®, an industry-led 501(c)3 non-profit, is America's leader in training and certifying foundational technical competencies for front-line technicians for in-demand, higher wage, higher skill jobs in advanced manufacturing and supply chain logistics. Technicians with MSSC Certifications are qualified for 11.3 million jobs in front-line production, material handling, and distribution. 84% of executives surveyed agree there is a talent shortage in U.S. manufacturing. MSSC is helping industry close that gap as they prepare to manufacture the future! Learn More!

MSSC Updates

Register Now for the MSSC Executive Briefing July 22 The Manufacturing Skill Standards Council (MSSC) will have its annual Executive Briefing virtually on July 22, 2021 from 11:00 AM-3:00 PM ET. This event will focus on Biden Administration initiatives on the use of industry certifications and apprenticeships in workforce development and education in multiple federal agencies. Registration is free and additional information on the agenda will follow. Follow this link to register!

MSSC First Annual Virtual Instructors Conference August 19 MSSC is pleased to announce its first annual virtual conference for all MSSC Instructors on August 19, 2021, from 11 AM-4 PM ET. Interested attendees must have taken MSSC Instructor training for any of MSSC’s certification programs:   Certified Production Technician (CPT) Certified Logistics Technician (CLT) Certified Forklift Technician (CFT) Certified Technician-Supply Chain Automation (CT-SCA)   This conference will include a report on relevant industry trends, updates on MSSC’s current programs for manufacturing and logistics, introduction to new certifications, changes in instructor training processes, uses of the Instructors Resource Library, and equity-related programs. The program will allow time for instructor questions and suggestions.    For more information and how to register, please contact Catherine Feeney, Senior Marketing Manager, MSSC cfeeney@msscusa.org

Policy & Trends

White House Shares Full Budget   The White House released its $6 trillion budget proposal for FY22. This request calls for a $20 million increase (approximately 1.5%) to the Perkins Basic State Grant, as well as a $108 million increase for National Programs- of which $100 million would fund competitive awards for middle and high school CTE innovation projects aimed at advancing equity and $8 million would fund technical assistance and grant evaluations. The request also includes a new $1 billion annually for 10 years to support middle and high school career pathways that would occur through the passage of the American Jobs Plan. For more details, follow this link.

Infrastructure Agreement Released   On June 24, the White House released a $1.2 trillion Bipartisan Infrastructure Framework as a critical step in implementing President Biden’s Build Back Better vision. The Plan makes transformational and historic investments in clean transportation infrastructure, clean water infrastructure, universal broadband infrastructure, clean power infrastructure, remediation of legacy pollution, and resilience to the changing climate. Cumulatively across these areas, the Framework invests two-thirds of the resources that the President proposed in his American Jobs Plan. View the full text here.

Reshoring Rose Significantly in 2020   A June 6 Industry Week article published new data from the Reshoring Initiative showing that more jobs were created in the U.S. thanks to reshoring in 2020 than were created by foreign direct investment. The first time that’s happened since 2013. Reshoring created about 109,000 U.S. jobs out of about 161,000 total jobs created from reshoring and foreign direct investment in 2020. “The high rate of 2020 reshoring vs. FDI indicates that U.S. headquartered companies are starting to understand the same benefit to U.S. production that foreign companies have understood over the last decade,” the report says. The most common reasons cited by reshoring companies in the report for their decision to bring jobs back to the U.S. was the positive domestic factor “proximity to customers/market,” which 1,367 companies cited. “Government incentives” was the second-most popular reason, and just over a thousand companies said they returned to the U.S. to seek available skilled workers.

ED Holds Virtual Roundtable on Providing Pell Grants for Incarcerated Individuals   U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona held a virtual roundtable to discuss the importance of students who took college classes while incarcerated. Secretary Cardona shared that he is “committed to ensuring that the Department works to serve currently- and formerly incarcerated students well, and to increasing access to high-quality post-secondary education for these students.” Readouts of these experiences can be found via this link.

House Holds Hearing on WIOA Reauthorization The House Education & Labor Committee held a subcommittee hearing "Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act Reauthorization: Creating Employment Pathways for Dislocated Workers." The full hearing can be watched here.

ED Releases New Information on Stimulus Funds The Department of Education released a Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) resource about how funding through the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) Fund- including the American Rescue Plan (ARP) ESSER Fund- and the Governor’s Emergency Education Relief (GEER) Fund can be used to support students in-K-12 education. This includes how funds can align the Strengthening Career and Technical Education for the 21st Century Act (Perkins V).  The FAQ can be found by following this link.

2021 Condition of Education Report Released   The Institute of Education Sciences recently released the 2021 Condition of Education. This annual report contains key indicators for all levels of education, labor market outcomes and international comparisons. The biggest changes in the report this year include two spotlight indicators to examine the preliminary educational impacts of COVID-19 on online learning and on secondary and postsecondary education. Key findings from the report include:  Two-thirds of K-12 students used online resources in a distance learning environment in September 2020 In 2018-19, the average cohort graduation rate for high school students was 86%, the highest rate since first measured in 2011  66% of 2019 high school graduates enrolled in postsecondary education.  Download the report here.

Events

National Leadership Symposium, hosted by the National Coalition of Certification Centers (NC3), July 13-14. Virtual. More information at www.nc3.net MSSC Annual Leadership Meetings (Virtual), July 21-22

Manufacturing Skill Standards Council (MSSC) Website

‌ ‌ ‌