Montez King is the Executive Director of the National Institute for Metalworking Skills (NIMS). As executive director, Montez lead our transformation of outdated training approaches, including osmosis training where employers simply expect new employees to soak in knowledge from their co-workers.

NIMS sets industry skills standards, certifies individual skills against the standards, accredits training programs that meet NIMS quality requirements, and promotes innovative solutions, such as competency-based apprenticeship, to connect credentialed and work-ready individuals with employers.

A company might get everyone to go through training but all that really shows is that they are successful “completers.” Our program levels the playing field by having a true expression of performance and accepting that all people involved in the training are performers.

Our mission is to provide world-class, industry-developed and validated, competency-based skill standards, credentials, and training frameworks that enable collaboration between educators, manufacturers, policymakers, and community-based organizations in a joint effort to increase the skills of the manufacturing workforce.

NIMS is a 501(c)3 nonprofit that was formed in 1995 to develop and maintain a globally competitive American workforce. The vision of NIMS is to build a globally competitive American workforce through collaboratively established industry standards, proven training frameworks and processes that dynamically respond to our technology-driven economy.