The National Institute for Metalworking Skills (NIMS) announced that 2010 Credentialing Testing was up 43 percent over 2009.  “Moreover, 2009 was a record year itself,” noted NIMS Executive Director Stephen Mandes in an annual report to the NIMS Board of Directors and Stakeholders.

NIMS continued growth comes as no surprise to NIMS Board Chairman Gregory Chambers of Oberg Industries.  “The rise in NIMS registrations and credentialing is due to NIMS being positioned to meet the demands of the industry,” said Mr. Chambers.  “Employers are looking for competency-based assessments and third party validations of skills.  The NIMS standards and credentials are designed by the industry to fulfill that need,” he said. NIMS tests were up 43 percent in 2010 over 2009 with 5,455 tests issued and 4,450 credentials earned.  NIMS issued milestone credential number 25,000 in July 2010.

Pennsylvania, with its statewide NIMS testing program lead all states, but there were marked increases in many states as the industry continues to use credentials internally and ask for NIMS credentials, and the schools and training institutions continue to require or promote them.  Illinois was second in number of tests taken and number of credentials earned.  Rounding out the top five were Connecticut, Alabama and California.  California, Indiana, Maryland, Mississippi demonstrated marked increase in testing and credentialing.

Mr. Mandes reported that there is a surge in requests for its CNC credentials at all level, including its CNC programming and CNC operator credentials.  He noted that the CNC Milling Operator and CNC Turning Operator have become very popular since their introduction in 2009, increasing from 165 in the initial year to 401 in 2010.

The NIMS Stakeholders include

• The Association for Manufacturing Technology
• American Machine Tool Distributors' Association
• National Tooling & Machining Association
• Precision Machined Products Association
• Precision Metalforming Associatio
• Tooling & Manufacturing Association