Connecting advanced manufacturing competencies to occupations across the network
Advanced manufacturing is an accelerator of the U.S. economy and helps create well-paying skilled-trade jobs for Americans. By developing new technologies at home, the U.S. can boost its advanced manufacturing sector and maintain its position as a leader in manufacturing worldwide. To take advantage of opportunities to reshore U.S. manufacturing, workers will need to be trained for future-looking skills to accelerate technology adoption and ensure a skilled U.S. workforce.
To this end, the Manufacturing USA network developed the Advanced Manufacturing Occupation and Competency Framework to equip job seekers, employers, and trainers with a common vocabulary and the career pathway linkages needed to successfully meet the advanced manufacturing industry’s workforce needs. This framework provides information needed to accelerate the recruitment and training of workers across the country: connecting industry’s most important skills, competencies, and occupations in the advanced manufacturing technology fields to existing frameworks, institutes, and workforce development efforts.
This Framework builds on and extends existing Department of Labor (DOL) manufacturing models while spanning the five technology groupings covered by the Manufacturing USA institutes. The Framework:
- Outlines common entry-level occupations in advanced manufacturing expected by Manufacturing USA Institutes and industry partners.
- Specifies the knowledge, skills, and abilities that workers need, both now and into the future, to work with cutting-edge manufacturing technologies across technology areas.
- Focuses on forward-looking, transferable skills which highlight connections between career pathways.
- Provides a common language around occupations, skills, and competencies to improve collaboration among industry, training providers, workers, and the Manufacturing USA institutes.
Analysis of the 2025 Framework - NIST AMS 600-20
