NIMS and Festo Didactic Develop Industry 4.0 Skills Standards

The National Institute for Metalworking Skills (NIMS), in partnership with Festo Didactic, will establish skills standards and ultimately credentials for jobs related to Industry 4.0. In light of the trend in digitalization of manufacturing through technology advancements such as Industrial Internet of Things (IoT), training in these skills is vitally needed now. With NIMS’ emphasis on manufacturing skills training, credentialing, and standards, plus Festo’s Industry 4.0 learning factories, courseware and eLearning integration, the two organizations are well poised to provide the training programs for Industry 4.0.

The emergence of Industry 4.0 is new territory for most in manufacturing. As such, among the first tasks to be accomplished is to conduct research to discover and verify exactly what those competencies must be. Then, the training protocols and credentials will be created. “We are hopeful to have the standards identified and the training program in place by the end of 2019,” says Montez King, executive director of NIMS.

During the development of the new Industry 4.0 skills standards, NIMS will ascertain the credentials in its existing programs that support the various Industry 4.0 functions and target new credentials for development. The training outcome is to provide employees in or entering a manufacturing workplace with an understanding of Industry 4.0 concepts and impart certifiable skills as companies increasingly adopt automation and data gathering and management functions in their manufacturing operations.