Dollars, Teachers Boost Manufacturing in Connecticut

07.11.2013
Issues & Policies

Advanced manufacturing centers at three Connecticut community colleges will receive $7.325 million in state funding for new or upgraded facilities and equipment.

The State Bond Commission approved the funding late last month for:

  • A new welding lab at Housatonic Community College’s manufacturing center (Bridgeport)
  • New manufacturing equipment for Naugatuck Community College’s advanced manufacturing center (Waterbury)
  • Construction and outfitting for an advanced manufacturing center at Quinebaug Valley Community College (Danielson)

In announcing the funding, Gov. Malloy said he hears from manufacturers “time and again … about their need to have a trained, skilled workforce that can fill … in-demand manufacturing positions, many of which are good-paying jobs.”

Teachers’ Manufacturing ‘Summer School’

Getting young people interested in manufacturing careers is the first step to filling those positions—and the goal of a partnership between CBIA and the Connecticut Community Colleges’ College of Technology’s Regional Center for Next Generation Manufacturing, a National Science Foundation Center of Excellence.

This summer, 10 Connecticut high school and college educators will trade in pencils for laser engravers and fabrication tools as they work as externs (think adult interns) in advanced manufacturing facilities throughout the state.

Now in its ninth year, the teacher externship program immerses instructors in the latest industry practices and technologies so that when they return to their classrooms in the fall, they can pass along new ideas and information to their students.

Each teacher will spend 160 hours in a manufacturing facility before implementing a work-based learning project for their students developed from the externship experience. Work-based projects give students a more realistic understanding of how classroom learning is applied on the job.

For more information about the externships, contact CBIA’s Mary deManbey at mary.demanbey@cbia.com (860.244.1975).   

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