(MIT: Cambridge, MA) -- MIT has long bolstered U.S. manufacturing by developing key innovations and production technologies, and training entrepreneurs. In fall 2025, the institute introduced a new tool for U.S. manufacturing: an education program for workers, held at collaborating institutions, that teaches core principles of production and helps employees and firms alike.

The new effort, the Technologist Advanced Manufacturing Program, or TechAMP, developed with U.S. Department of Defense funding, features a mix of in-person lab instruction at participating institutions, online lectures by MIT faculty and staff, and interactive simulations. There are also capstone projects in which employees study manufacturing issues with the aim of saving their firm’s money.

Ultimately, TechAMP is a 12-month certificate program aimed at making the concept of the accredited “technologist” a vital part of the manufacturing enterprise. That could help workers advance in their careers. And it could help firms develop a more skilled workforce.

“We think there’s a gap between the traditional worker categories of engineer and technician, and this technologist training fills it,” says John Liu, a principal research scientist in MIT’s Department of Mechanical Engineering and co-principal investigator of the TechAMP program. “We’re very interested in creating new career pathways and allowing the manufacturing workforce to have a different kind of perspective. We want to formalize the path to becoming a technologist.”

Liu, who is also the principal investigator of the MIT Learning Engineering and Practice Group (LEAP), adds that the MIT program “is a pathway to leadership. No longer should a technician just think about one piece of equipment. They can think about the whole system, the whole operation, and help with decision-making.”

TechAMP launched last fall in collaboration with multiple institutions, including the University of Massachusetts-Lowell, Cape Cod Community College, Ohio State University, the Community College of Rhode Island, the Connecticut Center for Advanced Technology, and the Berkshire Innovation Center in Pittsfield, Massachusetts. More than 70 people are in the initial cohort of students.

“MIT has embraced the idea that we’re reaching this new type of learner,” says Julie Diop, executive director of MIT’s Initiative for New Manufacturing (INM).

TechAMP forms a key part of the education arm of that initiative, a campus-wide effort to reinvigorate U.S. manufacturing that was announced in May 2025. INM also collaborates with several industry firms embracing innovative approaches to manufacturing.

“Through TechAMP and other programs, we’re excited to reach beyond MIT’s traditional realm of manufacturing education and collaborate with companies of all sizes alongside our community college partners,” says John Hart, the Class of 1922 Professor of Mechanical Engineering, head of the Department of Mechanical Engineering at MIT, and faculty co-director of INM. “We hope that the program equips manufacturing technologists to be innovators and problem-solvers in their organizations, and to effectively deploy new technologies that can improve manufacturing productivity.”

INM is one of the key institute-wide initiatives prioritized by MIT president Sally A. Kornbluth.

“Helping America build a future of new manufacturing is a perfect job for MIT,” Kornbluth said at the INM launch event in May 2025. “I’m convinced that there is no more important work we can do to meet the moment and serve the nation now.”

A ‘confidence booster’ for workers

TechAMP has been supported by two Defense grants enabling the program’s development. MIT scholars collaborated with colleagues at Clemson University and Ohio State University to develop several of the interactive simulations used in the course.

The course work is based on a “hub-and-spoke” model that includes segments on core principles of manufacturing—that’s the hub—as well as six areas, or spokes, where companies have advised MIT that workers need more training.

The four parts of the hub comprise manufacturing process controls and their statistical analysis; understanding manufacturing systems, including workflow and efficiency; leadership skills; and operations management, from factory analysis to supply chain issues. These are also the core issues studied in MIT’s online MicroMaster’s certificate in manufacturing.

The six spokes may change or expand over time but currently consist of mechatronics, automation programming, robotics, machining, digital manufacturing, and design and manufacturing fundamentals.

Having the TechAMP curriculum revolve around concepts common to all manufacturing industries helps technologists-in-training better understand how their companies are trying to function and how their own work relates to those principles.

“The hub concepts are what defines manufacturing,” Liu says. “We need to teach this undervalued set of principles to the workforce, including people without university degrees. If we do that, it means they have a timeless set of ideas. We can adapt ourselves to add industries like biomanufacturing, but we’re starting with the fundamentals.”

Students say they’re enjoying the program.

“It’s been a confidence booster,” says Nicole Swan, an employee at the manufacturing firm Proterial, who is taking the TechAMP class at the Community College of Rhode Island campus in Westerly. “This has really shown me so many different opportunities [for] what I could do in the future, and different avenues that are available.”

Direct value capture possible for firms

The TechAMP certificate program also involves a capstone project in which the students try to analyze issues or challenges within their own firms. Ideally, if those projects lead to savings or add value, that could make it well worthwhile for manufacturing companies to pay for their employees to attend the TechAMP program—about 10–14 hours of work per week—for the entire year.

“That could be a form of impact—direct value capture for the firm,” Diop says.

Some firms are already pleased with the development of TechAMP.

“There are so many manufacturing jobs that don’t need a four-year degree but do require a very high skill level and good communications skills,” says Michael Trotta, CEO of Crystal Engineering, a versatile, 45-employee manufacturer in Newburyport, Massachusetts, with products ranging from medical devices to aerospace and defense items. “I see TechAMP as a next logical step in developing a sustainable workforce.”

Trotta and three of his employees worked with MIT on the TechAMP project last spring, studying the curriculum material and providing feedback about it to the program leaders in an effort to make the coursework as useful as possible.

“What we want workers to do is progress to a point where they become that technologist making not $20 an hour, but $40 or $50 an hour because they have that skill set to run a lot more than just one piece of the process,” Trotta says. “They’re able to communicate effectively with the engineers, and with operations, to identify strengths and weaknesses to help the firm drive success.”

And while the position of “technologist” may not yet be in every manufacturer’s vocabulary, the MIT program leaders think it makes eminent sense as a way of further equipping workers who are currently regarded as technicians or machinists.

Diop says, “The role of nurse practitioner bridges the gap between nurse and doctor, and has changed how medicine is delivered. Manufacturing has had a reputation for dead-end jobs, but if MIT can help break that image by providing a real pathway, I think that would be meaningful, especially for those without university degrees.”

Intriguingly—as shown by research from Ben Armstrong, executive director and a research scientist at MIT’s Industrial Performance Center—about 10–15% of titled engineers in manufacturing industries don’t have engineering degrees, either. For that portion of the workforce as well, more formal training and credentials may prove useful over time.

TechAMP is new, evolving, and likely to be expanding soon. Diop and Liu are in talks with interested education networks in multiple manufacturing-heavy states to see if they’d like to partner with MIT. There’s also new interest from more manufacturers, including some of the partners in MIT’s Initiative for New Manufacturing. Given that the initiative just launched in May last year, TechAMP has hit the ground running.

“There’s been a lot of excitement so far, we think,” Liu says. “And it’s coming from organizations and people who are eager to learn more.”