Secure Your Company's Future with PMPA-MFG

The game-changing Manufacturing for Future Generations (MFG) training resource from PMPA-MFG is available exclusively to PMPA member companies. Training is an urgent need in every market, and PMPA-MFG provides a new online method to make a difference in qualifying and training talent for your shop.

PMPA-MFG provides the essentials to support a standardized training program. The program enables you to train and certify new and current employees in three easy steps:

Aptitude Testing. Make sure your candidates have what it takes to perform and receive instant feedback.
Safety Training. Ensure that all new hires are given a proper safety orientation while confirming they can succeed with online training.
One-Year CNC Operator Certificate. These online courses bring your new hires up to speed on CNC and give you assurance that students are ready for an apprenticeship program.

And best of all, PMPA-MFG is flexible with online courses that can be rolled out at the students’ convenience and readiness and paired with hands-on training at local schools.

The Skills Gap is Real

If you work in precision manufacturing, you know better than anyone that the skills gap is real and it’s growing.

Part of the problem is perception. The skilled trades have been portrayed as dirty, low-wage and the option of last resort in the media and culture for a generation. Thankfully, that perception is changing because of efforts of manufacturers like you reaching out to their local communities and showing the real story. Once people see that our positions require the skill of an artist and the mind of an engineer to make the products of tomorrow a reality, they understand the potential for meaningful and rewarding careers.

Another issue that has led to the gap has been the lack of effective training. Like it or not, the days of students being exposed to shop class are long gone. And the decreasing exposure to the trades had been matched by an increased amount of local, state and federal regulations, making a formal, certified training program a tough task for small businesses that are trying to focus on the bottom line.

Seeing this ever-increasing need, PMPA worked with nationally recognized training programs to develop our Manufacturing for Future Generations program. Designed to bring reliable, proven and recognized accredited training to PMPA member companies, both large and small, PMPA-MFG gives you the robust means to screen, evaluate and train candidates in the best way possible and in an online format.

Usable for new hires or current employees, PMPA-MFG will allow you to streamline your training and focus on advancing your business.

So, revolutionize your training, improve employee retention, encourage continuous improvement and start filling in the skills gap to advance your shop in the industry. Enroll in PMPA-MFG today.

Initial Course Offerings:

Safety Training

This course covers basic shop safety practices, drill press safety, machine guarding, lock-out/tag-out, MSDS-SDS comprehension, hazard communication standards, OSHA fact sheets, safe lifting, basic first aid and blood-borne pathogen awareness.

Mechanical Aptitude Test

Designed to assess the candidate’s understanding of basic mechanical principles, along with their application in everyday shop situations, the Mechanical Aptitude Test is broken into four sections:

Mechanical & Spatial Relations
Mechanical Reasoning
Applied Mathematics
Theoretical Reasoning

Each section consists of 20 to 25 questions, and should take students 20 to 25 minutes to complete.

(This test is recognized by the Department of Labor for use in qualifying apprentice machinists.)

One-Year CNC Operator Certificate

Develop basic CNC competencies in your employees through this innovative one-year program. We have coordinated PMPA online materials to allow your trainees to get affordable content online, while getting hands-on activity classes at your local community colleges and technical school resources. Training includes, but is not limited to: