Each year in the U.S., October marks National Manufacturing Month.
This year, to help celebrate, PowerAmerica partnered with the Smart Automation Certification Alliance (SACA) to host a free, two-day virtual workshop — focused on the growing importance of industry-recognized credentials for the advanced manufacturing and semiconductor workforce.
Bringing together federal workforce leaders, national manufacturing institutes, community colleges and technical training providers from across five states, the workshop highlighted how credentialing can accelerate talent readiness and ensure alignment with current industry needs.
“I’m passionate about training a high-tech semiconductor manufacturing workforce that is vital to our supply chain resilience, economy, and national security,” says Victor Veliadis, executive director and CTO of PowerAmerica.
The workshop opened with remarks from Veliadis, who emphasized the importance of the role that Manufacturing USA institutes play in uniting education and industry around workforce priorities.
Ashley Smith-Schoettker of Nexight Group, speaking on behalf of NIST’s Office of Advanced Manufacturing, reinforced this national priority and laid out the Manufacturing USA Occupation and Competency Framework.
James Wall, executive director of the Smart Automation Certification Alliance (SACA), then provided an overview of SACA’s mission and walked participants through the structure of SACA credentials — highlighting how they’re designed with and for industry partners.
A featured session with CESMII, The Smart Manufacturing Institute, showcased how Manufacturing USA networks are collaborating to prepare a modern workforce capable of operating in data-driven, automated manufacturing environments.
Community Colleges Leading Workforce Innovation
Community colleges that have implemented credentialing into their curricula — Ogeechee Technical College, Lakeshore College, Oakland Community College and the College of Lake County — talked about how they’ve found success with this approach. Some common themes among their stories were hands-on deployment, employer engagement and student outcomes. Their stories also all showed how community colleges can use stackable credentials to connect secondary education and technical training with bachelor’s degree pathways.
SACA representatives, including Meghan Ferster, Sue Smith and Wall, then introduced tools, digital portals and equipment approval processes that can help institutions efficiently adopt credentialing and align with Gold Certification standards.
Looking Ahead
Interactive Q&A sessions throughout both days highlighted a strong desire for collaboration, resource-sharing and regional workforce scaling, especially in semiconductor manufacturing, where talent demand is rapidly outpacing supply.
PowerAmerica will continue to work alongside SACA, community colleges and industry members to strengthen credential-based workforce pathways and help ensure that American manufacturing talent is job-ready from day one.
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