Abstract
Business leaders from a variety of advanced manufacturing and design industries have expressed a growing concern about the increasing skills gap in their new hires and existing workforce. This thesis provides an overview of the existing academic programs in the Sacramento Valley region that address the occupations and skills lacking. For any skills or occupations not currently satisfied in the region, the community colleges can be leveraged to create a program that can cater to a variety of advanced manufacturing and design occupations. They have the administrative structure to create targeted certificate to satisfy specific skills instead of a full position. By combining an assortment of skill certificates, this training program can accommodate a larger selection of occupations by the advanced manufacturing and design industries in the Sacramento Valley region.