It’s often been said that, “All training is local.” Whether local means at your company, within your locality or in your region, the concept seems to hold true. It’s difficult to roll out training nationally and, as a matter of fact, the method for government funding of training in the United States works against that. A vast preponderance of the federal dollars targeted for training is filtered through the 50 states.
This adds a difficulty factor to an Educational Foundation associated with a trade association with national scope, as is the case with PMA. Providing direct training is difficult, requiring huge capital and human-resource expenditures to open mostly redundant training centers around the country. Instead, many Educational Foundations (including PMA’s) develop products and services that can be implemented either in-plant or at a school.
For the past several years, PMAEF has taken it one step further, sponsoring a Best Practices program. The event brings together industry experts from PMA’s 17 Districts with educators local to them, to discuss what has been and what can be done to deliver training locally, using resources provided by PMAEF. It’s been a hit and, as a matter of fact, has become the Foundation’s signature event.
The PMAEF Best Practices event next occurs on August 3. If you’re an educator or a metalformer in one of PMA’s districts and you’d like to dial in, please join us.
David C. Sansone, CAE, is Executive Director of the Precision Metalforming Association (PMA) Educational Foundation and PMA's Director of Training and Education. He leads the association’s efforts to provide workforce-development solutions to the metalforming industry and interfaces with the industry’s workforce-solution providers.Share: 
