Resources a key to innovation

A GROWING NETWORK: Atrion Inc. uses training to fit employees' skills into the company's needs. Pictured above, from left, are: marketing intern Laura Gatson, sales operations apprentice Ken Norberg Jr., Client Engagement Partner Randall Jackvony and Business Operations Manager Kevin Frost. / PBN PHOTO/RUPERT WHITELEY
A GROWING NETWORK: Atrion Inc. uses training to fit employees' skills into the company's needs. Pictured above, from left, are: marketing intern Laura Gatson, sales operations apprentice Ken Norberg Jr., Client Engagement Partner Randall Jackvony and Business Operations Manager Kevin Frost. / PBN PHOTO/RUPERT WHITELEY

Atrion Inc., an IT services firm in Warwick, created the state’s first registered IT apprenticeship program. The program, which lasts a year and pays participants as they go through it, “selects high-potential, entry-level talent and provides them with the time, resources and expertise to accelerate their learning and advancement to a fraction of the typical progression,” said Jamie Boughman, who oversees the program as learning and organizational development manager.

The program was founded in 2008 as a direct response to the demand for skilled technical talent, and increased competition for employees. What was needed, said Boughman, was a way to reconcile the gap between academic experience and work experience.

Teaching employees in-house allows Atrion to tailor the experience to company needs. Apprentices learn through an “intensive, boot-camp atmosphere – a mix of instructor-focused training, hands-on lab work, self-study, technical challenges and on-the-job training,” said Boughman. In all, apprentices obtain more than 300 hours of customer service and business training; 2,000 hours of on-the-job training, and two advanced industry certifications.

Thirty percent of Atrion’s staff of 260 employees started as apprentices. The program strengthens Atrion’s ties with universities, Cisco Network Academy programs and technical schools, and assists the unemployed, under-employed, or those switching careers and in need of new skills.

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Atrion provides a significantly diverse customer base, and with that diversity comes a unique environment to build up one’s skills as an engineer and employee. Atrion engineers do not become stagnant on one network.

On the company website, there is a blog post by Senior Vice President of Executive Development Miguel Rey, on the importance of lifelong learning.

“All of us decision-makers in the IT industry need to understand the critical importance that must be placed on talent growth and skills development,” said Rey. “We have to insist and invest in the professional growth of our teams. If we don’t, in Aristotle’s words, we will have no ‘to ti én einai,’ or no essence, no substance or identity,” he said. “We will lose what we fundamentally are.” •

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