.jpg)
In Touch with Tennessee
In Touch with Tennessee
Skill Building and Certification in Modern Manufacturing
Unlock the secrets to revolutionizing workforce development in Tennessee's manufacturing sector with insights from Todd Reeves of the Tennessee Manufacturing Extension Partnership (TMEP) and Jackie Larson from Tooling U SME. Discover how their collaborative effort is empowering small and medium-sized manufacturers through an extensive online training platform, offering over 600 courses tailored to the needs of the industry. From foundational skills like basic shop math and blueprint reading to advanced manufacturing technologies and lean Six Sigma, you'll learn how these flexible, accessible programs are making continuous improvement and employee engagement more achievable than ever.
Tennessee Manufacturing Extension Partnership, a program of the Center for Industrial Services, supports several programs for organizations that train employees in a variety of manufacturing-based careers. Tennessee MEP has partnered with Tooling U SME, a provider of online manufacturing training courses and certifications. Their courses provide a quick start pathway to learning for students, new hires and existing employees. Hi and welcome to In Touch with Tennessee, a podcast of the UT Institute for Public Service. With us today to talk about Tooling U SME are Todd Reeves, business Development Manager for the Tennessee Manufacturing Extension Partnership, and Jackie Larson, senior Workforce Education Strategist with Tooling U SME. Welcome to you both. Thanks, susan. Thank you, susan. Happy to be here. So, todd, can you?
Speaker 3:tell us briefly why the Tennessee Manufacturing Partnership decided to offer this program to the state's manufacturers? Absolutely, thank you, susan. So our Tennessee Manufacturing Extension Partnership Program delivers training and consulting to small and medium-sized manufacturers across the state and, as you would imagine, not all manufacturers can always get their plant personnel into the same room at the same time for the training or other types of coaching that we like to provide. The Tooling you SME platform provides a mechanism for kind of this asynchronous training to take place when the attendees or the participants can fit it into their schedule, whether it may be some separate time away from their manufacturing role, maybe in the evenings or whatnot. So it's a great way to deliver training to more folks within the manufacturing operation.
Speaker 1:Great. So what type of training is currently available for employees in manufacturing?
Speaker 3:Well, our Tennessee MEP offers a wide range of implant training and consulting, primarily in the areas of continuous improvement, lean Six Sigma, quality management systems and workforce development. The Tooling U SME complements primarily the workforce development but again it provides training in a number of these areas. There are some very technically oriented manufacturing courses that are available online. They have a beginning, beginner, intermediate, advanced courses. There are certification tracks available through the Tooling U SME. There are assessments and really the nationally recognized certifications that can be attained depending on the needs of the company.
Speaker 1:Okay, okay. So, jackie, can you give us an overview of Tooling you SME?
Speaker 2:Absolutely so. Tooling you SME is a nonprofit that its mission is to support and advance the manufacturing industry. Toolingu is the learning and development arm of the company. Sme is our parent company and they're probably better known as the Society of Manufacturing Engineers, and so we partner together to help educate and upscale the current workforce is really our. You know, our partnership with the MEP helps us in doing that, working with those incumbent workers in those in-demand career fields such as advanced manufacturing technologies, such as advanced manufacturing technologies, anything in smart manufacturing, and then all in the general manufacturing needs, such as anything to do with additive or maintenance and machining, and so on.
Speaker 2:We're also dedicated to growing and diversifying the talent pipeline through our partnership. So we're focused on providing resources and programs, such as not just our online courses that we're probably best known for on the ToolingU site, but also providing other types of training options, like assessments, since SME is a nationally certifying body, so we offer certifications. We offer instructor-led training where there might be a need for. Well, online training does, as Todd mentioned, give the industry partner an option to not have to send their employees away from their facilities to go and do some foundational skills or upskilling. There are times where, you know, we can also provide an instructor option. And also, you know, our goal is really just to bring stakeholders together. I'm, you know, I'm here as a resource to our partners here at the Tennessee MEP, and so I'm here to help collaborate and really just talk about best practices and support all the you know, the solution consultants out there who are actually having the conversations with industry and their service areas.
Speaker 1:Oh, OK, ok, so you've touched a little bit on some of the classes offered. What are some of the types of classes that are offered through this platform?
Speaker 2:So we offer courses in about 12 different categories Anything from additive to all the way to welding, quality, lean assembly, and so there's a wide range of courses and areas that we support. We have over 600 courses in our entire catalog, and we probably add about two or three new courses a month. Oh wow. So, yeah, we have a staff of over 30 dedicated designers that create our content with industry, so they're busy at work every day, mm-hmm.
Speaker 1:And kind of going back to to talk about the platform and what it offers. You mentioned a little bit about, in addition to existing employees, that it's helpful with onboarding new employees. Can you talk about that a little bit more?
Speaker 2:employees. Can you talk about that a little bit more? Yes, absolutely. I think that every employer out there is out there, you know, looking for talent and when they do get talent, you know onboarding those employees can be a challenge. When you're trying to, you know onboard quite a few employees.
Speaker 2:So we really come in and you know we complement what that maybe that HR manager is doing.
Speaker 2:Through our partnership we identify courses, mostly foundational skills, because, if you can imagine, most of these people coming into the workforce or coming into that role probably have no experience in the manufacturing industry or maybe coming into that role.
Speaker 2:So you know we call them green. They're completely green, so they're really in need of foundational skills such as basic shop or shop math or basic measurement or blueprint reading. And so we really we see ourselves as we complement and we feather in courses that would be a complement to what they're already doing as part of their onboarding sessions and with their new hires. And so, in partnership with Todd and his team, we help to consult and identify courses that would be a good fit during the onboarding process and through our platform we're able to virtually be able to give them the ability to have that flexibility to have them, you know whether they're on site, which probably new hires and onboarding happens. But because our courses are web-based and they can take them anytime, and they can take their courses through us anytime, anywhere, as long as they have access to the Internet, right OK?
Speaker 1:This question is for the both of you. What are the benefits for manufacturers to make these classes available to their workforce?
Speaker 3:Well, let me take initial answer to that, susan. The key thing, as Jackie mentioned, the ability to deliver a wide range of course content to the participants is really important. Within our TMP organization we've got a set of subject matter experts that can deliver a wide range of in-plant training and consulting. We've got some subject areas that we don't have probably as fully capable training available, and tooling, you you know, provides and kind of augments that training for us in areas that maybe we don't have as much of a robust set of instructors, so it can supplement that training.
Speaker 3:The other thing that is really key with areas that we do have extensive experience in our subject matter experts and can deliver, is that the Tooling U training can actually be kind of a precursor to the implant training, where maybe the companies would invite their students and participants to take this training as almost a prerequisite to the in-person training.
Speaker 3:They could also deliver the Tooling U training on the back end, kind of in a more of a consultant and refresher mode for the you know. So the training may take place say in November, you know, november, and then for the next, you know, nine to 12 months the workforce participants you know might take, you know, one module a month to reinforce what they learned in the in-person training. So the idea that tooling you you know it can be a standalone set of training materials that a company would invest in. It can be both and it doesn't just have to be an either or situation. And the other thing, too, is we're talking about workforce preparation and workforce development. On a previous podcast I know you talked about our Skills for Success Manufacturing Skills for Success program in some of the justice-involved populations and the idea that the Tooling you SME training courses can also be delivered into that environment as well is another area that we look to help our manufacturing base identify and create a set of workers that would be ready to move into manufacturing roles.
Speaker 1:Oh, that's great. And, jackie, did you want to add anything to that?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I know we touched on onboarding new employees and that group, you know that group is, you know, a subset of an audience that we support. But you know there are also, you know our courses are not just for new hires. You know there's upskilling and gaps and gap training that happens at companies where they have a specific need in a specific department, like maybe their machining or maintenance department, and so we can help map courses to specific job roles that help us really customize, really customize and let the employer pick and choose which courses they'd like to be part of that particular employee's training. So we can really we allow them to customize it so that it's exactly what they want it to be. And so that's another group that we support, another audience per se. You know I talked about the blended hybrid delivery. It really is that's all part of the ability and flexibility that an employer has to really make their training be custom to them. But we also, you know we also have compliance training. You know everyone new coming in probably needs that OSHA training. So we offer that if that's not already offered through the MEP, offer that if that's not already offered through the MEP, and we haven't really worked with this yet.
Speaker 2:But apprenticeship is an area that we support as well. We provide apprenticeships or support for apprenticeships. We have courses that align with related technical instruction and so we work closely with the departments of labor in each state to help an employer be able to apply for their apprenticeship through the state, be able to include our courses as part of their related technical instruction. And, much like what Todd said, we like that to be sort of a precursor. We front load those courses in years one and two. Typically an apprenticeship is anywhere between one and four years at a company, and so a company will, because our courses have that. You know, our catalog is really built like a college catalog in that we have beginner, intermediate and advanced and so, like what Todd was referring to before, where there are some precursors and then maybe some on the back end with an apprenticeship, we front load our beginner and intermediate courses and then we on the back end, we, we, we kind of feather back in the uh, the advance when appropriate for them to start that training at that point.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and then lastly, we have the certifications that todd mentioned. You know we mentioned a little bit earlier and and and that we were a nationally recognized certifying body, and so we have what we call our base manufacturing certification. We call it our certified manufacturing associate certification and it's actually built out of 25 of our online foundational skills and it's actually built of out of 25 of our online foundational skills. So a lot of employers are kind of leaning into certifications, you know, with that whole wanting to, you know the whole retention, keeping, you know, employees feeling that they're valued and that they're being invested in, and so it's it's built out of our 25 foundational courses that they actually earned a certification.
Speaker 2:With that they can build on right, because it's based on those foundational skills. But it lets them go into like additive. But let's give them a little intro into a couple of different areas so that they have an idea of where they might want to go with that, with that basic. You know, base certification. But we have certifications and others, most recently our newest, which is our electric vehicle, but also certification, and we also have our most latest electric vehicle battery, battery packaging and assembly, and so we're excited about that and because there is a contingency of of battery plants in the state of Tennessee or some OEMs with the other automotive manufacturers in the state. So we built that with industry to support training in this very brand new field, that where everyone's struggling to get training.
Speaker 1:Right, okay, now the, the Tennessee manufacturing manufacturing extension partnership is just one of. I guess 50 of these manufacturing extension partnerships taught, is that correct? So there's a similar program in each state? Yeah, so how many you know? Are there other states that have taken advantage of this as well, jackie, and what is some of their? What have been some of their comments?
Speaker 2:So, yes, thanks for asking about that.
Speaker 2:We work with over 38 of the 50 MEPs around I think about five years ago, so we've been fortunate enough to be able to partner with so many, and some of their feedback is and I think Todd would probably agree is that, while your main focus has been on leading continuous improvement, we've been able to add resources that give you maybe you know an extension of your products and services that you can offer a company. In that I'm sort of an extension of Pod's staff. That's how I see myself. I work very closely with his solution consultants, who are out there in the field every day and they bring me into their client meetings and I help as part of their team to help consult and listen and be able to recommend courses that might be a good fit for a specific role or training need, and so I think that the biggest feedback is that they you know, they appreciate the hands-on, the one-on-one that we provide and the additional resources that they may not have access to or may not have themselves within their own you know products and services.
Speaker 1:Okay, great, great. And Todd, if you could just talk a little bit about manufacturing in Tennessee, it's obviously it's a huge industry here Could you talk about. You know some of the different types of manufacturing we have here and some of the ones that are growing, as Jackie mentioned. You know there's the manufacturing of e-vehicles and batteries for e-vehicles.
Speaker 3:Oh sure, right. So a lot of industry in the state of Tennessee, a lot of folks moving their plants and manufacturing facilities to Tennessee from other locations across the country and even the world. We see a significant influx of folks in that electric vehicle manufacturing space. We've got the Ford Blue Oval entity growing up in West Tennessee and a number of other battery manufacturers you know across the state that are ramping up to support that and the entire manufacturing infrastructure. We've got, you know, got automotive manufacturing is certainly a significant strength in Tennessee. Tire manufacturing, the boating industry is very strong in East Tennessee. We've got strong medical device presence in the Memphis area, chemical manufacturing and other consumer products across Upper East Tennessee and Middle Tennessee. We've got a number of firearms manufacturers that have located in Tennessee recently. So a very robust set of industries. I believe we're ranked pretty highly in terms of the food industry in the United States. The state of Tennessee is very highly ranked there as well.
Speaker 3:So we serve the TVP serves really all of these manufacturers in the state to help them improve their operations.
Speaker 3:Through the national MEP program our focus is a little more on the small and medium-sized manufacturers, to give them help and assistance and to be an extension of their operations.
Speaker 3:You know, a large corporation like Eastman or Bridgestone may have a lot of in-plant resources to help with quality and lean and leadership development. But many of the small manufacturers that maybe have you know 10, 15, you know, 50 employees don't have a lot of these resources hired to work full-time in their plants. And then a TMP organization can help augment that and deliver the consulting and training engineering services to those facilities on an as-needed basis. So that's one of the ways we're making a huge difference in the lives of Tennesseans is delivering on that. As far as being able to really connect our manufacturing base and other entities that are looking for our ToolingU solution, we've got some extensive information available on our website. We've got the ability to contact the solutions consultant that would be associated with your particular county and region in the state Our website is tmepcistennesseeedu and a wide range of materials available there to help folks understand the types of solutions that we're able to deliver and help our clients with.
Speaker 1:Okay, great, that was going to be my next question. Actually, how does one reach out to you or to a consultant about having access?
Speaker 3:Well the website, like I click on the contact your local solutions consultant link. That's pretty extensively located across the website. And so they can find their solutions consultants. They can reach out to them directly via email or phone or even schedule a team's call via a link on the webpage as well, so they can directly schedule a meeting from the solutions consultants webpage.
Speaker 1:Okay, all right. Well, great Well, thank you both. This sounds like a wonderful, impactful opportunity available for Tennessee manufacturers.
Speaker 2:Thank you, Susan.
Speaker 3:Glad to be part of the podcast today. Thank you for inviting us.
Speaker 1:You're welcome and thank you, listeners, for tuning in to In Touch with Tennessee. Be sure to find the podcast where you listen to your favorite episodes.
