In its first year of offering credentials from the National Institute for Metalworking Skills (NIMS), Naugatuck Valley Community College is off to an impressive start. During the 2014-15 academic year, NVCC students completed 127 credentials. These nationally recognized, portable, stackable credentials are often used by manufacturers to identify qualified candidates for employment.

“This is a fantastic program that we offer. It empowers students to take everything that we have taught them and put it to use, just as if they were out in the field,” said Anthony DiFederico, business and industry instructor at NVCC. “NIMS certification is recognized nationally and that’s a major plus for the students when entering the manufacturing environment.’’ This past academic year, DiFederico said his students completed an average of four certifications each.

Here’s the breakdown of NIMS credentials earned by NVCC students for the 2014-15 academic year:

In addition, NVCC instructional staff received 21 NIMS credentials over the past year.

NIMS was established in 1995 by the metalworking trade associations to maintain and enhance a globally competitive United States workforce. The organization sets skills standards for the industry, certifies individual skills against those standards and accredits training programs that meet NIMS quality requirements.

According to NIMS, manufacturers use the credentials “to recruit, hire, place and promote individual workers. Training programs use the credentials as performance measures of attainment, often incorporating the credentials as completion requirements. The credentials are often the basis for articulation among training programs.”