Building the Employer Infrastructure for Sectoral Strategies

About this grant

Employers highly value employees prepared by sectoral training programs and statistics show that people who successfully complete such training stay employed and benefit from increased wages. The Manufacturing Institute, in partnership with the National Network of Sector Practitioners, plans to test whether affiliates of industrial trade associations can implement sectoral employment programs to prepare low-income individuals for employment and better jobs.Multiyear funding will enable the institute to implement a national effort to integrate the sector strategy within an industry association and start affiliate-led local sector initiatives in manufacturing. Activities will include reviewing existing literature on the experiences of current U.S. manufacturing sectoral initiatives to learn about their strengths and limitations in order to improve their chances of success; conducting site visits to three or four affiliates; enlisting two local affiliates of national manufacturing trade associations as pilot sites; training 100 low-income individuals and placing more than 75 at each pilot site; conducting a regional- or national-level workshop; and informing state and federal policymakers about the importance of sectoral training to the nation’s manufacturing employers.The Center for Workforce Success is the workforce and training arm of the Manufacturing Institute, the nonprofit educational and research affiliate of the National Association of Manufacturers. The center’s mission is to find and promote workforce solutions for manufacturers in a global economy.