Skip to main content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.

Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock ( ) or https:// means you’ve safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

MEP Centers – On the Frontlines of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion

Standing Portrait of Foundry Workers in Time of COVID-19
Credit: iStock/xavierarnau

This blog is the second in a monthly series brought to you by the new America Works initiative. As a part of the MEP National Network’s goal of supporting the growth of small and medium-sized manufacturing companies, this series focuses on innovative approaches and uncovering the latest trends in manufacturing workforce development.

 

Craig Garner, profiled recently in a PBS News Hour segment discussing Rhode Island’s focus on retraining workers displaced by the pandemic, is excited about his new job at Yushin, a robotics manufacturer. He may or may not know what Polaris MEP is – even though Rhode Island’s MEP Center played a critical role in creating the training program that landed him his new job, and potentially set him on a whole new career path.

You may not hear their names on the evening news, but MEP Centers like Polaris are actively working “from K to Gray,” a holistic approach to education throughout a person’s life, to develop a more diverse, inclusive advanced manufacturing workforce of the future. The case for improving diversity in every industry is clear: as McKinsey has written extensively, “Companies in the top quartile of gender and ethnic diversity were 25% and 36% more likely to financially outperform those in the bottom quartile, respectively.” Moreover, the pandemic has disproportionately displaced workers of color, and connecting displaced workers like Craig to higher-paying job opportunities in advanced manufacturing is a win for the worker, for the company, for our economy, and for our society overall.

To be clear, diversity takes many forms – race, ability, age, gender, nationality, socioeconomic status, and more – and MEP Centers are offering programs in every area. In fact, America Works is actively tracking the vast array of programs offered by MEP Centers that increase diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) across the spectrum. For this article, we’ll give some well-deserved shout-outs to Centers that have best-in-class programs in diversifying the American manufacturing workforce.

Engaging Diverse Youth

While STEM programs can be found in schools around the country, MEP Centers are actively introducing young people to careers in advanced manufacturing. Many MEP Centers, like NWIRC (part of Pennsylvania MEP) and Alabama Technology Network (the MEP Center in Alabama), successfully pivoted during the pandemic to offer virtual factory tours during 2020’s Manufacturing Day. Some MEP Centers, like DVIRC (part of Pennsylvania MEP), have partnered with local high schools to create exciting engineering programs; others have launched robust youth apprenticeships, like MAGNET’s (part of Ohio MEP) Early College, Early Career program. The “What’s So Cool About Manufacturing?” video contest, started by the Manufacturers Resource Center (part of Pennsylvania MEP) in 2013 and targeted towards middle schoolers, has now grown to more than a dozen states.

Educating and Training Diverse Adults from Diverse Backgrounds

Around the country, MEP Centers are creating bootcamps and other rapid on-ramps for workers into open jobs. New Hampshire MEP partnered with a wide range of organizations to actively place displaced workers into open manufacturing jobs. Future Fit, an ambitious partnership in Arkansas that includes Arkansas Manufacturing Solutions (the MEP Center in Arkansas), incentivizes holistically supporting all students by reimbursing the community colleges only for those students who successfully complete the 100 hours of training. Amongst Catalyst Connection’s (part of Pennsylvania MEP) robust workforce offerings, the Operation NEXT program offers no-cost training in CNC, maintenance and welding to upskill or reskill workers. And to ensure that new workers are welcomed on the plant floor, Maryland MEP hosted a Critical Manufacturing Strategies webinar that focused specifically on DEI for manufacturing executives.

Communities

MEP Centers are partnering with community-based organizations (CBOs) to provide comprehensive support services that specifically assist workers of color and increase their likelihood of successful participation in workforce development programs. MAGNET in Cleveland, Ohio, has created a Manufacturing Sector Partnership, which then partnered with several nonprofits to launch ACCESS, a training program for returning citizens to connect with manufacturing jobs. And NJMEP has launched the ProAction Education Network, a consortium of nonprofits, government agencies, and schools that actively offers industry-recognized certifications to every interested New Jersey 12th grader, displaced workers, incumbent workers, and more.

As you can see, when it comes to workforce in many communities, the MEP Centers are the real “boots on the ground,” offering manufacturing careers to more youth, adults and communities. Of course, these programs are just a start, and the DEI journey for American manufacturing is still in progress. To accelerate the process, America Works is actively working to forge new partnerships with leading organizations in this area – including The Century Foundation, Urban Manufacturing Alliance, Jobs for the Future, National Fund for Workforce Solutions, and more – with the goal of leveraging that expertise to better inform and grow MEP Center programs. If you know of best-in-class programs or organizations, either within the MEP National NetworkTM or outside it, please mfieldman [at] manufacturingsuccess.org (let us know).

Together we can make real and lasting change in American manufacturing through growing and diversifying our workforce. The goal is clear: an American manufacturing sector that welcomes, supports and retains workers – regardless of their class, creed or color – creates a better America for us all.

About the author

Matt Fieldman

Matthew Fieldman is currently Executive Director of America Works, a nationwide initiative to coordinate the American manufacturing industry's training efforts, generating a more capable, skilled, and diverse workforce. Based at MAGNET: The Manufacturing Advocacy and Growth Network, Matt works across the nation's Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP) system to increase collaboration, efficiency, and impact of local and regional workforce development efforts.

Previously, he was Vice President of External Affairs for MAGNET, a nonprofit that helps Northeast Ohio’s small- and medium-sized manufacturers grow locally while competing globally. In this role, he launched the Ohio Manufacturing Survey; mspire, a regional startup pitch competition; helped launch manufacturing apprenticeships for inner-city youth; and is responsible for fundraising, legislative relations, media relations, and more. Concurrently, Matthew is the founding Board Chair of EDWINS Restaurant and Leadership Institute, Cleveland's first nonprofit restaurant and one of the first of its kind nationally to train formerly incarcerated individuals to work in fine dining. He raised over $600,000 to start EDWINS and was named “2014 Fundraiser of the Year” by Fundraising Success magazine for his efforts. He is also the founder of Cleveland Codes, one of the nation's first nonprofit software bootcamps devoted specifically to training low-income adults for careers in technology. Originally from Orlando, Florida, Matt earned a Bachelor of Science in Psychology, cum laude, from the University of Florida, a Master of Business Administration from The George Washington University, and a Certificate in Nonprofit Management from Case Western Reserve University. He is a former Ariane de Rothschild and American Council on Germany Transatlantic Fellow, and is currently a Civil Society Fellow at the Aspen Institute.

Related posts

Comments

Add new comment

CAPTCHA
Image CAPTCHA
Enter the characters shown in the image.
This question is for testing whether or not you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.
Please be respectful when posting comments. We will post all comments without editing as long as they are appropriate for a public, family friendly website, are on topic and do not contain profanity, personal attacks, misleading or false information/accusations or promote specific commercial products, services or organizations. Comments that violate our comment policy or include links to non-government organizations/web pages will not be posted.