Mayor Eric Garcetti is implementing a strategy to create more manufacturing jobs in L.A-based industries. (photo courtesy of Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti’s Office)

Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti recently announced LA MADE 4.0, a partnership between the city of Los Angeles, Goodwill Southern California, the UCLA-based Clean Energy Smart Manufacturing Innovation Institute and the USC Viterbi School of Engineering to prepare the city’s workforce for new technologies and provide middle-class career opportunities to Angelenos interested in manufacturing.

“Los Angeles is a manufacturing capital, a place where dreamers from around the world come to build tomorrow’s innovations today,” Garcetti said. “Manufacturing jobs are the bedrock of our economy, and LA MADE 4.0 will give more Angelenos the training to secure middle class careers in smart manufacturing.”

Garcetti has strengthened working families and the middle class. Under his leadership, unemployment has been cut in half and close to 200,000 new jobs have been created. In 2014, Garcetti led counties across the region in a successful bid to win the Advanced Manufacturing Partnership for Southern California, a federal initiative that strengthened the industrial ecosystem for aerospace and defense manufacturers, delivered $1.4 billion in public and private investment and created more than 5,300 new jobs. Between 2013 and 2017, manufacturing in Los Angeles’ metropolitan economy grew 12%, from $79.9 billion to $89.2 billion.

LA MADE 4.0 is the latest initiative to ensure the growth and success of Los Angeles’ manufacturing industry. Going beyond aerospace and defense, LA MADE 4.0 will reach other core manufacturing sectors in Los Angeles including the food and beverage, biotechnology and fashion industries. The effort will retrain 3,000 current manufacturing workers by 2022, providing them with the skills they need to secure manufacturing jobs in the future. Additionally, the partnership will place 400 workers in pre-apprenticeships for entry-level manufacturing jobs, and an additional 100 people will be placed in apprenticeships by 2022.

The Clean Energy Smart Manufacturing Innovation Institute, a $140-million public-private partnership focused on advancing smart manufacturing, will support workforce training programs to address skills and ensure LA MADE 4.0 trainees are ready to work with the technologies that are transforming manufacturing. Workers going through the programs will have access to a state-of-the-art maker space that is being developed by CESMII at UCLA.

“Smart manufacturing is about unlocking the potential of data to drive energy productivity and boost performance and precision,” said UCLA’s John Dyck, CEO of CESMII. “But none of that is possible if we don’t get workers ready to make the most of these new opportunities.”

Goodwill Southern California will provide training services through the Strong Workforce Apprenticeship Group, which has simplified the process for manufacturers to participate in apprenticeship programs. The USC Center for Advanced Manufacturing will also provide LA MADE 4.0 with access to advanced robotics, 3D printing and augmented and virtual reality systems to create programming targeted at high school and middle school students.