The strength of our nation's economy is dependent on a workforce that is highly skilled, and skilled workers are in high demand. Institutions preparing these individuals for employment have high expectations to meet. Since 1998 when the Department of Labor released the Workforce Investment Act, employers, and the nation as a whole, have been placing more pressure on educational institutions preparing our most valuable resource. Career and technical education (CTE) centers, and community and technical colleges have risen to this challenge by not only preparing students enrolled in their programs, but also by creating employee-training programs for various industry sectors. With the automotive industry crisis taking a toll on the nation in 2008 and 2009, there were high expectations for turning the "Big Three" around. While largely linked to financials, competitiveness was another factor that was critical to survival. What better way to remain competitive than by hiring highly skilled workers and offering training opportunities for existing employees? One answer to this challenge was the creation of the Automotive Manufacturing Technical Education Collaborative (AMTEC), a multistate collaboration of community and technical colleges, along with industry partners, focused on providing ongoing training for automotive technicians and engineers. The goal of this collaborative is to equip individuals with the advanced skills they need to have successful careers in a globally competitive workforce. This article presents their story. It first describes AMTEC's history, then presents its three core functions, which are: (1) Developing and Validating Technical Standards; (2) Turning Technical Standards into Modularized Curriculum; and (3) Assessing Technical Standards. The article then describes AMTEC's formative assessment model that allows for real-time progress monitoring, as well as diagnostic and end-of-program assessments.