The grant, administered through the U.S. Department of Labor, is designed to prepare tomorrow's workforce to compete for increasingly demanding, high-wage and high-skill jobs in industrial operations and information technology, particularly those defined as mission critical: "operations requiring round-the-clock supervision of systems" and those "aimed at combating the evolving threat of critical infrastructure operations failure."
The new Certified Mission-Critical Professional (CMCP) certification program will test graduates based on the skills and body of knowledge taught through new Mission Critical Operations curriculum and degree programs to be established at Cleveland Community College, Wake Technical Community College, the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, Nash Community College and Moultrie Technical College.
While Mission Critical Operations encompasses a broad spectrum of career areas—including infrastructure maintenance, communications and emergency operations—ISA's new CMCP certification program will focus on industrial operations, such as automation engineering technology, advanced manufacturing, and cybersecurity of industrial control networks.