Hillsborough Community College, with support from the Manufacturing Alliance of Hillsborough County, is offering a free program leading to the MSSC CPT certification. The instructor-led course is being held at HCC's Ruskin campus in the southern part of the county, not far from the Manatee county line.

The three-week course starts Oct. 31 and runs during the daytime.

Link to download PDF.

On Oct. 8, BAMA members got to spend an afternoon with an astronaut when we were the presenting sponsor at an event at the Museum of Science and Industry (MOSI) with Astronaut Story Musgrave, the only person to fly on all five space shuttles.

Story Musgrave is a man with a humorous, fascinating and impressive background. During the afternoon, Musgrave talked about his life, entertaining the audience with tales of his youth, and spoke about the Hubble Missions. His talk was followed by a film on MOSI’s five-story IMAX® screen on the Hubble Missions.

Musgrave was born in 1935 on a dairy farm in Stockbridge, MA. He was in the forests alone at 3 and by 5 floated his homebuilt rafts on the rivers. He rode combines at 5, drove trucks and tractors at 10 and when alone in remote fields, repaired them by 13.

He never finished high school, instead running off to Korea with the U.S. Marines where he was an aircraft electrician and an engine mechanic. He started flying with the Marines and over the next 55 years accumulated 18,000 hours in over 160 aircraft. He is a parachutist with over 800 freefalls.

Although never earning a high school diploma, interesting enough, he went on to obtain seven graduate degrees in math, computers, chemistry, medicine, physiology, literature and psychology. Working as trauma surgeon along with a 30-year astronaut career.

Story was an NASA astronaut for over 30 years and flew on six spaceflights. He performed the first shuttle spacewalk on Challenger's first flight, was a pilot on an astronomy mission, conducted two classified DOD missions, was the lead spacewalker on the Hubble Telescope repair mission and on his last flight, he operated an electronic chip manufacturing satellite on Columbia.

To read more about Story Musgrave, his biography is titled, “The Way of Water.”

MAF Environmental Teleconference
Thursday, October 20, 2016
3 – 4 p.m.
Dial in Number 712.775.7000; PIN 317371#
Staffed by Hopping Green & Sams
Moderator: Mike Petrovich, Hopping Green & Sams

For more information, contact nancy@nstephens.com

Article from Industry Week website - click to read article.
Who is Killing American Manufacturing?
by Leo Gerard, International President, United Steelworkers

St. Pete College featured on ABC News on Sept. 14

Watch the video online.

The National Association of Manufacturers is holding a teleconference on October 6th at 10:00 AM (EDT) about the new federal trade secrets law.
Click for Registration Info

CareerSource Tampa Bay is conducting a Manufacturing Workforce Analysis Survey in partnership with CareerSource Pinellas, Florida High Tech Corridor, Pasco Economic Development Council, Pinellas County Economic Development, Tampa Bay Partnership, and Tampa Hillsborough Economic Development Corporation.

The goal of the survey is to understand local needs for skilled manufacturing employees in Tampa Bay. Individual company identities and responses will be kept confidential. Thank you for providing this critical information that will assist us in addressing the gap between the supply and demand for manufacturing workers in the Tampa Bay area. https://www.careersourcetampabay.com/

The survey deadline is this Friday, September 16.

Live 2 Lead Tampa Bay
Friday, Oct. 7
Use the promotional code “BAMA2016” when registering for individual admission to receive a $10 discount. Then, $10 will be donated to BAMA Scholarship and STEM fund.

Click here to register

Manufacturing Skill Standards Council
Certified Production Technician
Certification Program

This is a 100 percent web-based course consisting of five modules and four assessments for a total of 80 hours (a headset and microphone is required). Upon successful completion of the course, you can earn your MSSC Certified Production Technician (CPT) certification. The CPT is a nationally recognized certificate that can be used for employment across all manufacturing sectors.

Consisting of:
  - Maintenance
  - Awareness
  - Quality and Continuous Improvement
  - Manufacturing Process and Production

Throughout the training, students take MSSC assessments. After passing each assessment, a Certificate of Recognition from MSSC is provided. When all four key assessments are successfully completed, the MSSC CPT Certification will be awarded and 15 credit hours toward an A.S. in Engineering Technology degree can be used at all state colleges in Florida that offer the A.S. in Engineering Technology degree.

Training starts Tuesday, October 4, 2016
Classes are conducted online Tuesdays and Thursdays, 6 - 10 p.m., October 4 through December 13.
Fee: $899* per person
*Includes registration with MSSC, five coursebooks, four assessment codes and facilitation. (No class on Thanksgiving)

For more information and to register, visit SCF.edu/CCDenroll or contact Lee Kotwicki at 941-363-7218, KotwicL@SCF.edu.

METTLER TOLEDO Announces New Facility to be Built in Pasco County
Company expected to add 185 jobs and invest more than $30 million in the project Lutz, Fla.

(August 23, 2016) — Today. the Pasco Economic Development Council gathered with representatives from Enterprise Florida and Pasco County officials to announce that METTLER TOLEDO will construct a new 250,000-square-foot facility at a site adjacent to the Suncoast Parkway in Lutz, Florida. The new facility, built for the company’s Product Inspection Division, will be home to more than 500 employees, including 185 new positions and 320 retained jobs. More than $30 million in capital will be invested in the region. METTLER TOLEDO’s Product Inspection Division is the global market leader in the field of check-weighing, industrial metal detection, and x-ray inspection systems for the food, pharmaceutical, and packaged consumer goods industries.

“We are very excited to have made the decision to locate our new facility in Pasco County,” said Viggo Nielsen, General Manager of METTLER TOLEDO Safeline. “We wanted a location where our current staff would be able to follow us and where we could pull new team members from a diverse and well educated pool. The support we have been getting from Pasco County, The State of Florida, and Duke Energy has been outstanding."

METTLER TOLEDO cited access to the area’s diverse, experienced labor pool in addition to the location’s easy access to regional infrastructure as prime reasons for choosing the Pasco County site for the new facility. “I have often touted that Pasco County’s strong workforce and affordable cost of doing business makes our community an ideal location for foreign direct investment,” said Pasco County Commissioner Kathryn Starkey. “I am delighted that METTLER TOLEDO has found that Pasco County is the best location for their long-term growth.”

Bill Cronin, President/CEO of Pasco Economic Development Council added, “METTLER TOLEDO's relocation is another wonderful testament to the outstanding assets Pasco County has to offer businesses of all sizes across many industries. METTLER TOLEDO will benefit from our strategic location, the outstanding talent in the region, and we are grateful for its investment in Lutz.” The company will ultimately consolidate operations from one other location to the new Lutz facility. Construction is expected to be complete in the fall of 2017.

“This is a very rewarding win for Florida,” said Crystal Sircy, Executive Vice President & COO of Enterprise Florida, Inc. “Not only is METTLER TOLEDO—a global industry leader—bringing more jobs to the state, but this is a great example of the strong economic development partnerships that exist in Florida. The state has a great business story to tell and we have tremendous partners around the state to help us share that story.”

Florida’s advanced manufacturing industries are diverse and include sectors for producing intermediate and finished products ranging from plastics to tortillas to auto parts. In total, Florida is home to more than 19,000 manufacturers employing 331,000 workers. These strong industry assets help manufacturing businesses ramp up fast in Florida.

Cissy Proctor, Executive Director of the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity, said, “We’re proud to work together with local, regional and state partners to attract strong job creators like METTLER TOLEDO to Florida. The company’s expansion will support more than 500 Florida families and bolster the state’s growing advanced manufacturing sector.”

Project partners included Enterprise Florida, Florida Department of Economic Opportunity, the Pasco Economic Development Council, CareerSource Florida, and Duke Energy. Chris Hart IV, President and CEO of CareerSource Florida, said, “This latest expansion of METTLER TOLEDO is great news for Pasco County and surrounding communities. CareerSource Florida has been proud to support METTLER TOLEDO’s growth through employee skills training, and looks forward to assisting with recruiting, hiring and training needs at the new Pasco facility.”

“Duke Energy was honored to partner with Pasco County and the Pasco Economic Development Council to identify excellent sites and market the communities we serve to businesses in and outside of Florida,” added Alex Glenn, President of Duke Energy. “METTLER TOLEDO's new Pasco location will bring high-level, high wage jobs and capital investment to the area, and our smart grid will provide clean and reliable energy service to the company’s new operations.”

Mettler Toledo is holding a job fair on Sept. 21 at its Tampa facility, 6005 Benjamin Rd., Tampa 33634, from 6-8PM and jobs can also be viewed at www.mt.com/careers.

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About METTLER TOLEDO
METTLER TOLEDO (NYSE:MTD) is a leading global supplier of precision instruments and services. It is the largest provider of weighing instruments for use in laboratory, industrial and food retailing applications. The Company is also a leading provider of analytical instruments and systems for use in the life science industries, and of process analytics instruments used for in-line measurement in production processes. In addition, METTLER TOLEDO is the largest supplier of in-line inspection systems used in production and packaging for food, pharmaceutical and other industries. www.mt.com.

About Enterprise Florida
Enterprise Florida, Inc. (EFI) is a partnership between Florida’s businesses and government leaders and is the principal economic development organization for Florida. EFI facilitates job growth through recruitment and retention, international trade and exporting, promotion of sporting events, and capital funding programs to assist small and minority businesses. EFI launched “Florida – The Future is Here” to promote the state as the nation’s premier business destination. www.enterpriseflorida.com

About Pasco Economic Development Council
Pasco EDC is the lead economic development organization dedicated to the overall growth and prosperity of Pasco County through the development of a sustainable and diversified economy. Pasco EDC continues to be a strong partnership funded by corporate and public investors focused on the economic vitality of Pasco County. www.pascoedc.com