(NIMS: Fairfax, VA) -- Last year at the 2010 Manufacturing Summit, sponsored by the Swiss Business Hub and the National Institute for Metalworking Skills (NIMS), U.S. Assistant Secretary of Labor Jane Oates gave the attendees a three-part homework assignment dealing with the support and promotion of American manufacturing.

On Oct. 27, 2011, at the Manufacturing Summit 2011 in Washington, D.C., Secretary Oates will be presented with the responses to this homework assignment from companies, educators, and workforce professionals.

This is a tremendous opportunity to get your voice directly to one of the nation’s highest-ranking officials who is concerned with the future of manufacturing and the means of recruiting and training bright young people into the industry. Moreover, Oates demonstrated the importance of small companies and asked how we can best support them.

Secretary Oates asked the following:
• What is the best way to initiate a public ad campaign to make Americans aware of today’s manufacturing jobs? How can this advertising campaign show that manufacturing is not a dirty world of dead-end jobs and assembly-line labor, but a clean and vibrant world of upward mobility where careful thought is rewarded?
• How can we best support small manufacturers? What can the publicly-funded workforce system do to best aid the new model of small manufacturers?
• How do we make sure we are touting the earnings in manufacturing? How can we show the American people, especially our youth, that manufacturing is a highly skilled job with proper compensation for its advanced skill set?

Industry, education, business, and government need your input to meet the challenge that we are faced with as a nation. Join the 2011 Manufacturing Summit. Registration is fast and free; simply click here to register yourself and any guests.

To ensure that your input is heard at the 2011 Manufacturing Summit next month, send your responses, thoughts, or comments about Secretary Oates’ questions directly to NIMS Executive Director Stephen Mandes at smandes@nims-skills.org.

The Manufacturing Summit 2011 will be held Oct. 27, 2011, from 8:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. in the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center. A reception will be given the night before at the home of the Swiss Ambassador in Washington, D.C. for all conference attendees.