Built by Industry, Backed by Philanthropy: How Autodesk Foundation is helping FAME USA scale employer-led workforce development
Manufacturers face a complex and evolving talent challenge. Retirements are creating vacancies, new investments and expansions are generating demand for workers, and increasingly sophisticated technologies are changing the skills required on the plant floor. Meeting these needs requires more than traditional workforce training. It calls for solutions built around the realities of modern manufacturing—and collaboration among employers, educators, and workforce development partners.
At the Manufacturing Institute (MI), FAME USA—the Federation for Advanced Manufacturing Education—offers a proven approach. By putting employers at the center of workforce development, FAME helps manufacturers build the talent pipelines they need while creating pathways to well-paying, high-demand careers.
With support from the Autodesk Foundation, FAME has expanded its reach, demonstrating how strategic philanthropy can help proven workforce solutions scale while preserving the employer leadership that makes them effective.
An Employer-Led Solution Worth Investing In
FAME USA is an advanced manufacturing apprenticeship initiative of the Manufacturing Institute, the National Association of Manufacturers’ 501(c)(3) workforce development and education affiliate.
What distinguishes FAME is its employer-led structure. Participating manufacturers help shape curricula, recruit students and define the skills required in their operations. This ensures that training is grounded in local workforce needs rather than disconnected from the realities of the plant floor.
Students participate in a rigorous, full-time earn-and-learn program, attending classes at a partner community college two days a week and working for their sponsoring employer three days a week. Over the course of the program, they earn an associate degree, gain paid work experience and develop the technical capabilities, manufacturing-specific analytical thinking and professional skills needed to succeed in advanced manufacturing careers.
The model combines local ownership with national infrastructure. Employers lead their chapters, while the Manufacturing Institute provides coordination, standards and support to help communities launch and sustain them.
For manufacturers, the result is a way to develop talent aligned with their specific needs. For students, it is an opportunity to earn a degree and a paycheck while gaining a direct pathway into a skilled career.
Investing in Growth
The Autodesk Foundation, which supports innovative solutions to the world’s most pressing social and environmental challenges, has supported FAME USA since 2022, with its investment evolving from foundational operational support to strategic funding for expansion. The partnership reflects the Foundation’s commitment to expanding economic opportunity across the Design & Make industries by supporting workforce solutions that create value for both employers and learners.
As Kate Buchanan, Workforce Innovation & Investment Lead at Autodesk Foundation, explains, FAME’s combination of employer leadership and an earn-and-learn model delivers near-term benefits for both sides of the talent equation:
“Autodesk Foundation has invested in Design and Make workforce solutions for more than a decade, and FAME USA stands out for delivering near-term impact for both employers and learners. Grounded in industry-leading lean manufacturing practices and a compelling earn-and-learn model, FAME enables students to get paid from day one while gaining the hands-on experience and technical skills needed for in-demand advanced manufacturing careers. Employers, in turn, do not have to wait two years for graduates to enter the workforce. They gain access to motivated talent early, help shape the skills their businesses need, and demonstrate leadership as pioneering employers investing directly in the future of manufacturing.”
In the four years since the Autodesk Foundation began investing in FAME, the number of chapters has increased by 48%. Today, the network includes more than 45 chapters in 19 states with over 450 employer partners. More than 3,200 students have graduated from the program as of 2026, with another 1,300 currently enrolled.
Scaling an employer-led model requires more than adding new chapters. It means building the infrastructure and capacity to support expansion while maintaining the standards and local employer ownership that underpin its success. Autodesk Foundation’s flexible funding has helped the Manufacturing Institute pursue both priorities.
As Tony Davis, National Director of FAME USA, puts it: “Autodesk Foundation’s support gave us the runway to grow FAME in a way that maintained employers in the leadership role that makes this model work. We are proud of our partnership [with the Autodesk Foundation] and are excited to continue to bring this solution to more communities.”
The partnership illustrates an important role for philanthropy: helping workforce solutions move beyond individual communities to achieve broader reach without compromising the elements that make them effective.
Bringing the Model to the Plant Floor
FAME’s impact is ultimately realized where manufacturing happens—on the plant floor. As manufacturers invest in automation, advanced production technologies, and more sophisticated equipment, they need skilled technicians who can operate, maintain, troubleshoot and improve these systems.
This is particularly relevant to Autodesk’s customers that use advanced design and manufacturing technologies to manage everything from design to make to operations. FAME employers, include leading advanced manufacturers, like Toyota Motor North America, Caterpillar, and GE Appliances. Their participation illustrates how manufacturers are investing not only in the technologies that will shape the future of production, but also in the people needed to put them to work.
Toyota Motor North America
Toyota Motor North America founded FAME in 2010 and continues to use its Advanced Manufacturing Technician model across eight U.S. manufacturing locations. Toyota’s longstanding commitment demonstrates how workforce development can become an integrated part of an employer’s talent strategy rather than a response to immediate hiring needs. By combining classroom instruction with experience in real manufacturing environments, the model helps develop technicians equipped for increasingly complex production operations.
Caterpillar
Caterpillar was a founding member of the Texas FAME Lone Star Chapter in Seguin, supporting the development of advanced manufacturing talent aligned with local industry needs. The chapter was recently recognized as a Top Performing FAME Chapter for its alignment with FAME’s rigorous standards. Its success highlights the value of combining nationally consistent expectations with employer-driven training that responds to the needs of a specific manufacturing community.
GE Appliances
GE Appliances participates in four FAME chapters across Alabama and Kentucky, connecting the company to students gaining hands-on experience while earning associate degrees. Its participation demonstrates how employers can use a consistent workforce development model across multiple communities while remaining actively involved in shaping the skills and experiences of future technicians.
Together, these manufacturers reflect an essential feature of FAME: a model that can serve different industries, regions, and operational needs while maintaining a shared commitment to employer-led training.
Scaling What Works
The future of advanced manufacturing depends on more than technological innovation. It depends on ensuring that workers have the skills and opportunities to translate that innovation into productivity, competitiveness and growth. FAME offers a model for meeting that challenge—and its expansion demonstrates what is possible when employers, educators, workforce organizations and philanthropy work toward a common goal.
Employers bring firsthand knowledge of the skills they need. Community colleges provide the education and credentials. The Manufacturing Institute supplies the national infrastructure to support quality and growth. And partners like Autodesk Foundation provide the flexible capital that helps an effective model reach more communities and learners.
The result is not simply more FAME chapters. It is a stronger network of manufacturers investing directly in their future workforce, and more learners gaining access to the skills, experience and career opportunities needed to succeed in advanced manufacturing.
Interested in investing in proven workforce solutions? Philanthropic support can help FAME USA expand its employer-led model, reach more communities and connect more learners to careers in advanced manufacturing. Learn more about FAME USA.
