News
TRAK Machine Tools to host equipment demo for regional companies on April 29
April 15, 2021
TRAK Atlantic Showroom at New Century Careers features
world’s first TMC toolroom machining center
Pittsburgh, PA – April 14, 2021 — TRAK Machine Tools Pittsburgh Showroom will host an open house at New Century Careers’ Anselmo Innovation Training Center, 305 E. Carson Street, Pittsburgh’s South Side. “This unique strategic public-nonprofit partnership continues regional post-COVID recovery for the industry,” says Neil Ashbaugh, NCC president and CEO. “It will help to reframe NCC for a larger role in the industry as a whole.”
The showroom open house for regional manufacturers is scheduled for Thursday, April 29, from 9 a.m.-3 p.m.
NCC’s Ashbaugh weighs in on proposed American Jobs Act
April 2, 2021
New Century Careers President and CEO Neil Ashbaugh was quoted among local leaders in the April 1 Pittsburgh Business Times article, “Pittsburgh’s manufacturers poised to benefit from proposed American Jobs Act.” Ashbaugh commented on the act’s potential for creating jobs for thousands of technicians. New Century Careers introduced a robotics technician apprenticeship program in 2019. For enrollment information, call 1-800-822-9337 or contact NCC. Pittsburgh Business Times subscribers can view the full article online.
NCC recognizes Black History Month, profiles NIMS Executive Director Montez King
February 22, 2021
Montez King, executive director of NIMS, the nationally-recognized organization responsible for developing national standards and competency-based credentials in manufacturing trades,
knows a bit about hardship and determination. His early years were spent on the streets of Baltimore City where a “career” as drug dealer was more lucrative than school and work. A chance encounter with an instructor at his sister’s trade school open house changed that path. Montez was introduced to an opportunity he didn’t know existed. “The shop machines, even the smell were alluring,” he said. The instructor also piqued his interest: “You could make some serious money after just a few months of training.” And his promise – a guaranteed job when you turn 16 – sealed the deal.
Montez set out to do whatever it would take to become a machinist! Long days, multiple part-time jobs, and bullying on the job did not stymie his resolve to learn all he could to fulfill his part of the deal. Another influencer, an HR director, offered another revelation – he could start a bank account and a get small load credit card. After one year on the job, Montez had saved $10,000! (At 19, he had his own house built!)
Apprenticeship training at the local community college gave him the “paper to prove” he could succeed in a world emphasizing college over skills training. His ideas now gained respect and exposure. Over the years he applied everything he learned to achieve positions of increasing responsibility.
But he never forgot the power of a mentor and role model. He never forgot his own early experience.
While now the Executive Director of a nationally-recognized organization, Montez spends lots of time in the communities that mimic his childhood neighborhood with kids he can relate to because he lived that life. His message to them echoes his mentor’s: “The reality is I could take you out of poverty and into a middle class job in six months.”
“Everything we touch is connected to manufacturing. With developments in technology, the workforce is changing rapidly,” Montez noted. He cited statistics that report that half of today’s jobs – “middle skills jobs” — require more than high school but less than a college degree. Most offer family wages and, often, benefits. Montez added, “Technology makes training easier, faster and more accessible for those in-demand jobs, making it quicker and easier to master skills. Machinist training opens the door to a broad range of career opportunities: programmer, quality control, sales or repair of machines, an instructor, a manager or owner of a machine shop and more, as my own career demonstrates.”
New Century Careers featured in new report by Tooling-U SME
February 19, 2021
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