The Manufacturing Skill Standards Council or MSSC is proud to announce the launch of a new MSSC training and certification program: The Certified Forklift Technician (CFT). In combination with MSSC’s current Certified Logistics Associate (CLA) and Certified Logistics Technician (CLT) programs, this strengthens MSSC’s suite of stackable credentials for front-line material handling and distribution work in the transportation-distribution-logistics industry.

In developing CFT, MSSC partnered with the Material Handling Equipment Distributors Association (MHEDA), the nation’s premier trade association for serving the business interests of the material handling industry. CFT is designed to respond to the industry’s acute need for higher skilled maintenance and repair service technicians for forklift equipment.

Based upon national industry standards defined by MHEDA’s subject matter experts and validated by the MHEDA membership, CFT includes all the essential elements of MSSC’s high-quality, integrated training and certification systems: instructional materials, instructor training, registration, assessments, and credentials. Courses are technically intense, but concise, lasting about 55 hours, with a 90-minute assessment.

The success of CFT depends critically on close working relationships between the nation’s forklift dealers and community colleges in their area. Dealers will provide community colleges with hands-on equipment orientation and testing to enable MSSC to authorize them as CFT Authorized Instructors. Community colleges will offer training on their campuses for prospective job applicants, but also will be encouraged to offer CFT training and assessment to incumbent service techs at the dealerships.

Community colleges may prefer to give the CFT course as a stand-alone offering, or they may also choose to combine CFT with CLA, CLT and other school courses as part of a larger program of study. Since the demand for higher skilled technicians permeates the entire TDL industry, community colleges may wish to offer CFT as part of a suite of “stackable” industry certifications within the framework of an innovative “supply chain logistics” curriculum or industrial maintenance curriculum.