Pierce course will help Valley manufacturers in hiring.

In an attempt to improve the quality of the Valley's manufacturing labor pool, Pierce College will begin offering National Institute of Metalworking Skills (NIMS) courses, testing and certification, starting this fall. Paid for by a $500,000 grant that the college received last November, Pierce will become the only local community college to offer NIMS certification classes, which local manufacturing experts say are sorely needed in the Valley.

Pierce has been working toward becoming NIMS certified for the past five years, first getting a provisional certification before receiving its full accreditation two months ago. Over this period, Pierce has been slowly integrating the projects that are used in NIMS certification exams into its regular curriculum. While the length of time needed to get NIMS certified will vary with each student, Pierce expects the average student to become certified within one and a half to two years.

"The Valley has an active chapter of the machine tool owners group who strongly supported NIMS certification courses," Ron Smetzer, an industrial technology instructor at Pierce, said. "There were a couple of NIMS champions, who were marching and beating the drum about getting NIMS courses going. I liked their idea. It was attractive and it made sense."

Graduates of the program will be highly trained to take positions as machinists with some of the Valley's many metal working shops. According to Chuck Alvarez, Pierce's NIMS program coordinator, employers will now be able to properly gauge prospective employees' level of metal-working skill, prior to hiring them.

"The beauty of it is that it creates a way for employers to evaluate potential employees. If someone comes in the door and says they're a machinist, it can mean a lot of things," Alvarez said. "With a NIMS certification, there's a certain level of knowledge and proficiency that has to be there or you don't get certified. It will put employers on a firmer ground."

While some of the NIMS students will consist of already employed machinists seeking to broaden their skill sets, many of the students will be full-time college students looking to break into the manufacturing industry. In order to place these students with full time jobs, Pierce has partnered with the Small Manufacturers Association to provide internships for their students. Some of the local companies include Repairtech International, Anmar Precision, Delta Tan Delta Systems, Deking Screw Products and Riggins Engineering.

David Goodreau, the chairman of the SMA, believes that the NIMS program and partnerships with community colleges such as Pierce, are the only ways that the Valley can compete in the globalized manufacturing world.

"Local companies don't currently have the level of proficiency in their employees to compete against countries that have $80 dollar a month wages," Goodreau said.

Dave Rottner, the owner of Van Nuys-based CT Manufacturing, agrees that the new NIMS program will greatly aid local manufacturers.

"It's going to be positive because now there will be a certain criteria that students will have to learn, and it's a good criteria," Rottner said.

"I think it's going to change the whole industry and be really positive for everybody. They'll know what they're supposed to know. If they're a level II NIMS certified, they're going to be good."

While Pierce is currently the only local community college offering NIMS certification courses and testing, it is not the only one with plans to do so. Los Angeles Valley College was one of the first schools in the area to make a move toward being NIMS accredited, though it lost its footing when the instructor who would've taught the courses retired. However, according to Roberto Gutierrez, the program specialist with job training at L.A.Valley, the community college is slowly taking the steps toward accreditation.

"We recently hired Michael Avila to be a full-time instructor. The reason why we dropped off in our pursuit of NIMS was that we didn't have a full time-person. With Avila, we're looking forward to him implementing those standards. It's in our plans. It's more a matter of when we'll do it, rather than if," Gutierrez said.

JEFF WEISS Staff Reporter