Manufacturing training program exceeding expectations, officials say
Groton — Most of the participants in the advanced manufacturing program Bret Jacobson oversees at Ella T. Grasso Technical High School have “zero” experience.
Some have entered their 30s, but most are in their mid-20s. They all like to work with their hands.
“They’re doers,” Jacobson said.
And, when they enter the program — the so-called “manufacturing pipeline” the Eastern Connecticut Workforce Investment Board put together with Three Rivers and Quinebaug Valley community colleges — they tend to be underemployed, according to Marge Valentin, an associate dean at Three Rivers.
But that soon changes.
EWIB has announced that 92 percent of those who completed the pipeline’s first round of classes for outside machinists and welders have already secured employment, most with Electric Boat, the Groton-based submarine-builder that helped craft the program’s courses.
EB, which gives preference to pipeline graduates during hiring, has extended job offers to 148 pipeline participants, U.S. Rep. Joe Courtney’s office said Monday. Of those, 71 have accepted job offers.
On Monday, Courtney visited the Grasso Tech site where the pipeline program takes place, joining John Beauregard, the EWIB director; Patrick Reuss, director of program resourcing at Electric Boat; Valentin and others connected with the program.
Reuss said the manager of EB’s welding shop plans to interview all 14 members of a current pipeline class.
Chris Gilbert, a 22-year-old from Derby, who graduated from the pipeline’s five-week machinists class in May, started work at EB in June. He said he’ll start “giving something back” to the program next week when he starts teaching its “Introduction to Manufacturing” class.
Josh Rosario, 24, another new EB-er who graduated from the pipeline program, said he attended New England Tech after high school, then started working in the automotive field.
He wanted to pursue something more, he said, which led him to EB and the pipeline training.
Launched last year with a $6 million federal grant, the pipeline program has so far exceeded expectations, according to Beauregard, who attributed its success to cooperation among the community colleges, EB and Grasso Tech, which provides space and equipment.
“When you have an employer that shapes the curriculum, it gives a program like this added weight,” he said.
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