AMHERST – Yesterday was a good day for manufacturing in Massachusetts, as Secretary of Housing and Economic Development Greg Bialecki announced a grant of almost $2 million in funding to support manufacturing workforce training across the state during the Advanced Manufacturing Collaborative (AMC) Pioneer Valley Summit.
Governor Dev al Patrick launched the Advanced Manufacturing Collaborative, a partnership between industry and government to help build a globally competitive manufacturing industry in Massachusetts, in 2011. Its five-point agenda brings together manufacturers, educators, academia, and other organizations to work on industry-identified priorities including promoting manufacturing; workforce and education; manufacturing innovation; the cost of doing business including energy management and sustainability; and access to capital resources.
Accompanied by state Sen. Stan Rosenberg at UMass-Amherst’s Integrative Learning Center, Bialecki said that nearly $1.5 million will go to five regional workforce investment boards throughout the commonwealth, including the North Shore Workforce Investment Board ($415,000), the North Central Workforce Investment Board ($300,000), the Bristol Workforce Investment Board ($287,950), the Franklin/Hampshire Regional Employment Board ($276,705) and the Hampden Regional Employment Board, or HREB ($219,960).
The HREB will use the funding to conduct an advanced manufacturing training program in partnership with the western Mass. chapter of the National Tooling and Machining Association that will go toward contracting local community colleges, part-time instructors from two vocational-technical high schools and an advanced manufacturing company to train unemployed and underemployed adults in the county.
“The nice thing about this grant is that it’s an 18-month grant that will allow us to start training on July 1, 2015 and continue through to December 31, 2016,” said David Cruise, president and chief executive officer of the Hampden Regional Employment Board, who hopes the board can train 55 unemployed people in Hampden County, one of the poorest counties in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
Cruise added that four of the institutions that will be working to train these residents will be Roger L. Putnam Vocational-Technical Academy in Springfield, Westfield Vocational-Technical High School, Springfield Technical Community College, as well as a small program at Asuntuck Community College in Enfield, Connecticut.
“We’re excited about that opportunity,” he said. “We’re currently running some programs and this really allows us to continue our programs for the next two years and that’s a real value added for us.”
“Normally we have funding that runs from year-to-year, so this year and a half opportunity is a huge advantage for us,” said Cruise. “Advanced manufacturing is a critical industry across the Commonwealth that creates wealth opportunities for companies and their employees.”
Regarding the state’s ability to keep up with the demands of the manufacturing industry, Rosenberg, who is expected to become the new Senate President in January, believes the commitment made by the administration of Governor Deval Patrick to vocational-technical high schools and community colleges will pay dividends long after he leaves office at the end of December.
Rosenberg said before that the state’s colleges and universities are working “more and more closely” with the private sector.
“The curricula, materials and techniques are being integrated into the learning environment so that people are ready to go into the work environment with those skills,” he said.
“We’re spending between $10,000 and $15,000 per job on training that repositions and provides everything it takes to make someone a skilled machinist,” Bialecki said. “That basic skillset moves someone from being in a relatively low-paying retail postion into geting an entry-level job in the manufacturing industry.”
“When you think about it, it’s a fantastic investment, because you’re creating the possibility of changing someone’s earning profile for the rest of their lives and career,” he said. “When you look at it from a state point of view, these people are going to pay a lot more in income and sales taxes. When you’re spending that kind of money – $10,000 to $15,000 a job – that’s a good investment for the state. We get our money back.”
“Three or four years ago at one of the meetings of the New England Governors, Gov. Patrick invited me to speak about the importance of manufacturing and we had a collective resolution from all six (New England) governors to promote manufacturing,” said Bialecki. “We’re all working on it and certainly, with increased investments we’ve made over the last five or six years, we consider (Massachusetts) to be taking the lead in New England.”
Through a separate grant program, the Industry Training Capital Equipment grant program, also aimed at supporting the manufacturing industry in Massachusetts, Smith Vocational and Agricultural High School in Northampton was awarded $400,000 to rebuild its precision manufacturing training program. With the support of over 25 regional manufacturing and workforce leaders in Hampshire County, the rebuilt training program will be a site for daytime students and evening adult-learners, in partnership with the Franklin-Hampshire Regional Employment Board.
“The unprecedented partnership between the private and public sectors has helped manufacturing to regain momentum in Massachusetts,” said Marty Jones, president and CEO of MassDevelopment. “MassDevelopment started the AMP It Up! campaign to encourage young people to pursue advanced-manufacturing careers, and the Commonwealth’s investment will complement this effort to meet the workforce challenges of this growing sector.”
In September, the Patrick administration announced the launch of the Industry Training Capital Equipment grant program to expand support of training programs at career technical high schools and community colleges. The capital equipment program will fund large scale grants for the purchase of equipment to prepare students for careers in high demand industries such as advanced manufacturing, information technology, hospitality and mechanical and technical skills. The grant equipment program is designed to help improve the skills of students enrolling in these programs, increase the number of students who can access training and allow employers to have access to a greater pool of qualified talent.
Funding for the program is provided by the Commonwealth’s Capital Plan. The Patrick administration’s five-year plan includes $10 million in funding for a grant program to benefit Massachusetts’s career technical schools and community colleges.
Massachusetts is home to over 7,000 manufacturers with 250,000 employees. The Patrick administration is committed to supporting the growth of advanced manufacturing in Massachusetts, an industry that is expected to require 100,000 jobs in the next decade and offers careers in a sector with an average annual salary of $75,000.
The AMC’s AMP it Up! Program, which launched in September 2012 and is operated by MassDevelopment, works to build awareness among young adults and their families on the opportunities for well-paying careers in manufacturing. Massachusetts-based nonprofit organizations that address education and workforce can apply for funding at www.ampitup.com. Across the Commonwealth in recognition of manufacturing week, the AMC engage manufacturers, schools and colleges to participate in open houses, public tours, roundtable discussions, career workshops and other events hosted by manufacturers.
In June 2013, Governor Patrick announced the creation of the Advanced Manufacturing Regional Partnership Academy, a first-in-the-nation program designed to meet the manufacturing industry’s future workforce needs. The Academy provides hands-on learning opportunities, and tool and peer-education to regional leaders, helping eliminate one of the industry’s chief concerns of finding well-trained employees to fill available jobs in manufacturing.
This summer, Governor Patrick signed an economic development package that included $12 million for the establishment of the Middle Skills Job Training Grant Fund. The fund will provide grants to vocational-technical schools and community college to support advanced manufacturing, mechanical and technical skills, hospitality and information technology industries training. The fund aims to train 4,000 workers over the next four years to address the workforce and talent pipeline needs of employers in Massachusetts.
