Washington, D.C.—The Manufacturing Skill Standards Council, a group of private companies and public organizations, has written the first skill standards for manufacturing industries. The standards are the first step in a system of employment training and productivity measurement.

MSSC will create skills assessment tools and a certification process to measure competence in the skills standards. Those are scheduled for completion by mid-2002.

The system will "improve access to jobs, improve education and training programs and help identify industries' needs for a highly skilled workforce," said LeeSa Gerst, MSSC's communications director.

MSSC's main thrust with standards is to help employers hire qualified workers, help educators train more effectively and help workers acquire skills most beneficial to employers.

Skills are divided into core skills and concentration skills. Core skills are those necessary to work well in any manufacturing environment. Concentration skills are those in the following areas:

• Production
• Health, safety and environment
• Logistics and inventory control
• Maintenance, installation and repair
• Production process development
• Quality assurance

Effective use of the standards is not limited to manufacturers.

"Industrial distributors can use the skill sets for any of their inventory control, quality control, or maintenance and repair employees to have a benchmark for their knowledge now, or for training in the future," she said.

For information, contact MSSC at www.msscusa.org.