New Haven Register (New Haven, CT)
Program preps adults for jobs in manufacturing
DERBY — Like many people, Lovell Hunter wants to make time. But the 42-year-old Derby resident isn’t looking to clear a few hours off his schedule.
He literally wants to make time.
Hunter is a watchmaker and has been for more than a decade. It’s a lost art, he said, and his dream is to help restore the watchmaking industry in America.
“Many years ago, America was the heart of the watch-making community,” Hunter said. “After World War II, that went down to almost nothing.”
Though he knows a lot
about watch manufacturing through his years of experience, he yearns to know more. So Hunter was excited to learn that the Derby Public Schools was partnering with Bridgeport-based The WorkPlace and Housatonic Community College to offer HCC’s Advanced Manufacturing Technology Certificate Program tuition free to eligible adults in the community.
Classes will be taught at Derby High School on evenings and weekends.
Derby already offered HCC’s manufacturing program to students at the high school, but this is the first time the program will be offered to adults, said Matt Conway, Derby superintendent of schools.
“The idea behind this from the original conception was to design a program we could offer students during the day and to adults at nights, on weekends and in the summer,” he said.
The Derby school system sent out a survey to adults in the city to see if anyone was interested in the program, which will teach such skills as blueprint reading and computer-assisted design.
Hunter said he received an email about the survey and decided he was interested. He was already aware of HCC’s manufacturing program, and had been interested in checking it out, but this was even better.
“For me, it was quite a miracle that this was being offered at my local high school, tuition-free,” he said.
The program was funded through two grants awarded to The Workplace to develop training programs such as these.
“Manufacturing continues to grow in Connecticut and, as a workforce development organization, we want to make sure we’re meeting that need,” said Sarah Lewis, director of Apprenticeship Works at The Workplace. “Part of our goal is to make sure these careers have extreme opportunities for growth.”
According to a fact sheet from the Derby Public Schools, Connecticut’s 4,755 manufacturers employ more than 162,000 people. Those who participate in Derby’s eight-week manufacturing program can earn up to 34 college credits, and there
are internship possibilities and access to manufacturing jobs. “Anyone 18 and up can really get skilled in manufacturing,” said Robin Avant, academic dean at HCC. “We at HCC are really focused on creating a pipeline of experienced (people) who can go right into the workforce.”
Conway said he has high hopes for the program, but is worried that there might be more potential students than there are program slots.
Right now, he said, there is funding for two separate programs of 15 students each, with the first program starting in June. So far, he said, 45 people have expressed interest in the program in Derby alone. Conway said the school system recently sent out surveys in people in the towns neighboring Derby to see if there is interest.
“My only concern is that there is far more interest at this time than there are seats in the program,” Conway said.
He said he hopes Derby can secure more funding for additional sessions down the road.
Meanwhile, Hunter said he is hoping to get the opportunity to participate in the new program.
As the workforce gets more automated, he said, it’s easy to think that cultivating skilled workers is no longer important, but that isn’t the case.
“Robots do so much in our lives,” Hunter said. “To have a program that focuses on manufacturing is just great.”
For more information on the Derby program, visit https://www.derbyct. gov/news/post/11243/.