Announcing Second Phase of Pilot of Innovative Upskilling (ForwardskillingSM) Program Targeting Manufacturing Workforce

ForwardskillingSM initiative applies a shared-economy playbook to support small/medium-sized manufacturing companies to upskill workforce rapidly and at scale.

NEW BERLIN, WI, UNITED STATES, January 10, 2025 /EINPresswire.com/ -- Pindel Global Precision, a leading innovator in advanced manufacturing and contract machining of precision parts, announced the second phase of its ForwardskillingSM workforce upskilling pilot after a successful launch. The groundbreaking initiative aims to upskill the existing manufacturing workforce to leverage the latest advancements in manufacturing technologies, including automation and artificial intelligence.

A history of manufacturing excellence in Wisconsin
Wisconsin has been underpinned for more than 125 years by one of the world’s most robust manufacturing ecosystems. Throughout the state, networks of interconnected and complementary value-add component manufacturers have been operating since the industrial revolution of the late 1800s. Back then, around the founding of Harley-Davidson and Allen-Bradley, Milwaukee was the ‘machine shop to the world,’ and Racine was the ‘small electric motor capital of the world’.

The offshoring of manufacturing in past decades has diminished Wisconsin’s presence on the global stage, but its highly trained and highly trainable workforce, when augmented by automation and AI, offers Wisconsin the chance to be the manufacturing powerhouse for the world again.

That grand opportunity, however, will only be enabled by advanced manufacturing professionals trained in the latest technologies. Our success will depend on Wisconsin and its industries’ ability to upskill its workforce, now and continuously, as technologies and individuals’ interests change.

Today’s American society seems to hold the mistaken belief that what individuals learn in the first 25 years of life will support them for the next 50 years of life. In decades past, when careers were far shorter, this may have been true—but that is far from the reality we face today. Today’s workforce experiences not only longer careers, but more rapidly changing technologies than ever.

To meet this challenge, employers and employees have turned to upskilling. The term “upskilling” is used to describe the practice of offering continual opportunities to acquire new skills and leverage new technologies (most relevantly, automation, AI, and industry best practices). Upskilling enables employees to add more value to their companies and, in turn, to individually capture more value in wages, benefits, bonuses, and life and career fulfillment.

However, it is very expensive for small- and medium-sized companies to internally upskill their own employees; there is little scale in instruction, little awareness of training best practices, and a high short term opportunity cost of training during standard industry work hours.

Applying the ‘shared economy’ playbook to workforce upskilling
As we look across the American business and technology landscape the last 15 years, we see the beneficial impact of the ‘shared economy’ and its ability to scale far beyond legacy industries. Both Uber and Airbnb are prime examples of the impact of the shared economy; they have creatively accessed dormant assets (personal vehicles and real estate, respectively) and utilized them partial-time to provides services and capture value.

To address the difficulties that small- and medium-sized businesses face when upskilling their employees, Wisconsin is taking a page out of the shared economy playbook with ForwardskillingSM.

First conceived by Pindel’s CEO Bill Berrien during his participation in the Presidential Leadership Scholars program in 2019, ForwardskillingSM has a dual intent: (1) to act as a clearinghouse for upskilling courses, vendor training, certificate programs, and other offerings that already exist in the market, and (2) to act as a coordinator of upskilling programs by proactively piecing together the curriculum, training facility, training materials and tools, and instructors required to address specific industries’ training needs.

Because Wisconsin has such an intimately interconnected manufacturing ecosystem, it is perfectly positioned for the shared-economy model. The upskilling resources required to bring the workforce into the modern era of technology are all in place—expertise, training curricula, and machine assets abound throughout the state—but because they have been dispersed and segregated, they have remained isolated and underutilized until now.

Berrien envisions the program as a cornerstone of a new manufacturing renaissance that has the potential to propel Wisconsin back onto the global stage. “We are at the dawn of a golden age for American manufacturing, and Forwardskilling is how we ensure that our workforce leads the charge,” he says. “By investing in our people and keeping pace with technological advancements, we're not just keeping up with the future—we're building it.”

ForwardskillingSM pilot program - Swiss CNC Machining
While the long-term vision for ForwardskillingSM includes training opportunities for tradesmen across the manufacturing industry, the first program has been dedicated to Swiss CNC production machining. The program includes four courses, each offering a structured pathway for skill advancement by focusing on progressively advanced techniques. The courses are outlined as follows:

In the single-company pilot phase of the Forwardskilling program, “Swiss Production Machinist 1,” Pindel Global Precision collaborated with partners like Milwaukee Area Technical College (MATC) to offer its own employees specialized training in cutting-edge technologies.

Swiss Production Machinist 1 was an introductory course customized by MATC’s Workforce Solutions team that allowed Pindel employees to balance work and education, applying new skills immediately on the job.

Pindel employees learned Swiss safety practices, setting up machines under supervision, machine codes, and basic troubleshooting. They dedicated a few hours each work week to classroom time and were then able to immediately apply learnings in the workplace. This approach minimized the impact of taking the employees away from their work while elevating their technical capabilities, leading to both career advancement and wage growth.

Jennilee Orlowski, one of Pindel’s first participants, testified to the program’s success, saying, “The hands-on experience and ability to apply skills on the job have made a big difference in my career trajectory.” The single-company pilot phase revealed that the program can transform careers and add significant value to a business over a short period of time. Machinists who completed the Swiss Production Machinist course reported immediate gains in confidence, skills, and earning potential.

Looking to build on this success, Pindel has hired Thomas Deslongchamps as its new Director of Training and Continuous Improvement, to further develop the program.

Thomas Deslongchamps
Pindel Global Precision
+1 262-786-2550
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