The National Association of Wholesaler-Distributors (NAW) has joined the Power Transmission Distributors Association (PTDA) Educational & Scholastic Foundation’s efforts to launch an industrial distribution curriculum for community colleges. The goal of the program is to develop local pools of qualified potential employees and create affordable resources for employee development.
By lending its support to the program, NAW joins 10 other PTDA partners in the initiative: the Association for High Technology Distribution, Electrical Apparatus Service Association, Gases and Welding Distributors Association, Industrial Distribution Association, International Association of Plastics Distributors, International Sanitary Supply Association, North American Horticultural Supply Association, National Fastener Distributors Association, Safety Equipment Distributors Association and Security Hardware Distributors Association.
The PTDA Foundation’s curriculum initiative is designed to teach the skills needed for success in the industrial distribution channel. The foundation is working with community colleges to customize the curriculum to meet the needs of local distributors and manufacturers.
Students already are enrolled at Henry Ford Community College in Detroit and Metropolitan Community College in Omaha. The foundation currently is working with the newest pilot site, Cuyahoga Community College in Cleveland, to finalize curriculum, with the goal of having students enrolled in spring 2005. The Foundation Board of Trustees has set an aggressive goal for rolling out the program in North America. Orlando, Philadelphia, Minneapolis, Toronto and Vancouver have been targeted for additional pilots in 2004.
For more information, visit www.naw.org or www.ptda.org.
