The AFL-CIO Working for America Institute (WAI) is working with labor and industry partners to spearhead the creation and adoption of a high-quality, universal pathway leading to a range of good manufacturing careers. The Manufacturing Core Curriculum (MC2) will prepare and connect students and workers to entry-level jobs and registered apprenticeships in the manufacturing industry.
For Workers:
• Creates accelerated pre-hire pathways into advanced manufacturing careers
• Opens access to good jobs with family sustaining wages and benefits
• Provides workers with needed training, including safety, industry knowledge, and manufacturing career awareness
• Increases workers’ knowledge and skills needed to secure employment in the manufacturing industry
For Unions:
• Establishes a pipeline to union apprenticeships
• Workers see unions as providing valuable training, creating a positive connection
• Employers see unions as helping solve workforce challenges, improving labor-management relationships
• Trains a new generation of workers in skills valued by unions and essential to industrial work: safety, industry awareness, and workers’ rights
For Employers:
• Establishes new recruitment channels
• Connects employers to community-based organizations and the workforce system
• Forms diverse candidate pools for registered apprenticeship and job openings
• Focuses on training workers in high-demand, employer recognized knowledge and skills
• Builds a reliable, skilled workforce familiarized with the work of manufacturing, increasing employee retention
• Generates cost savings on employee recruitment and employer supported job training
For Communities
• Opens doors for community members to a variety of industries and new manufacturing endeavors
• Supports efforts to attract new industry to the community
• Connects with local employers for greater job opportunities
• Ignites the economic growth that makes communities thriving places to live
