SAMI job training fills R.I.

THE RIGHT TOOLS: Guill Tool & Engineering’s Dajah Goncalves, 22, was hired in part because of her training at NEIT’s Shipbuilding/Marine Trades And Advanced Manufacturing Institute. / PBN PHOTO/MICHAEL SALERNO
THE RIGHT TOOLS: Guill Tool & Engineering’s Dajah Goncalves, 22, was hired in part because of her training at NEIT’s Shipbuilding/Marine Trades And Advanced Manufacturing Institute. / PBN PHOTO/MICHAEL SALERNO

A training program developed by the New England Institute of Technology and manufacturers in Rhode Island is starting to have an effect, if only a modest one, on the state’s jobs crisis.
Established with a three-year, $2.5 million grant from the U.S. Department of Labor awarded in early 2013 and other funding, the Shipbuilding/Marine Trades And Advanced Manufacturing Institute at NEIT has resulted in a 90 percent placement rate for the 60 of the unemployed or displaced workers graduating from the program, said Fred Santaniello, an account executive in NEIT’s Center for Technology and Industry. Another 30 are currently in the program, he said.
Santaniello, who oversees the SAMI program, said participating firms signed memorandums of agreement or letters of support when NEIT was obtaining the grant, which allowed the companies to participate in shaping the curriculum to meet their needs. The SAMI program is also funded with $440,000 in grants from the Governor’s Workforce Board and $50,000 from the Rhode Island Foundation.
As partners, the firms agreed to consider hiring graduates who succeed in the training program, Santaniello said. “Our goal is to make sure at the end of the training the students enter into a full-time job,” he said. “We start with the employers, finding out what they want, what kind of skill gaps are there, and that really drives our curriculum design.”
That approach matches objectives at General Dynamics Electric Boat, which has hired more than 20 people from the program so far, said Jason Vlaun, EB’s chief of human resources. EB is hiring for the next several years to meet its latest government contract obligations, including the Ohio-class replacement submarines, Vlaun said.
“Our goal is to interview and make as many offers as possible, and the real reason why is: the collaborative effort with NEIT,” he said. “We listen to them, and they listen to us. I know it seems like a drop in the bucket, but we’ve got to start somewhere. We haven’t seen these hiring numbers for growth in manufacturing in Rhode Island for about 20 years. The next five years are crucial building block years.”
Chuck Paul, vice president of Guill Tool & Engineering Co. Inc. in West Warwick, asked NEIT to focus on training for advanced computer numerically controlled machinists as well as welders. The company makes extruded products ranging from Bic pens to the coating on electrical wires commercially, and also does contract work for EB, he said. “That’s what we were pushing for,” said Paul. “In CNC machining, there [are] lathes, mills, electrical discharge machining, grinding: we were looking for all of that.”
Paul hired Dajah Goncalves, 22, of Providence, about a month ago, he said. Her aptitude for math is an especially important skill. And while she is cross-training in all departments, she may find that milling is the best fit, he said. The entry level position pays between $11 and $14 an hour, he added.
Goncalves says the foundation SAMI laid with the training she went through between September, when the program was first being set up, and this spring, has made the transition to work a smooth one.
“SAMI gave me the basics,” said Goncalves, who is pursuing a degree in teaching at the University of Rhode Island, but will specialize in either science or math. “I learned to use the different tools, how to run the manual machines, how to read engineering drawings.”
Then Guill Tool exposed her to a variety of CNC machines, Paul said. Guill Tool has 80 employees, and about 30 of them are CNC machinists, he said. He is hoping to hire a couple more machinists through SAMI.
The program begins with three weeks of exposure to both the welding and machining labs for the students, who must be unemployed or displaced, followed by discussion of testing and aptitude with counselors as to which direction participants would like to pursue, Santaniello said.
Then the students are enrolled in a training program, and provided remedial help in math if necessary. The welding program is 260 hours over eight weeks, while the machinists program is 300 hours over 10 weeks, he said.
“It’s a very short time to deliver any more than entry-level skills, but we’re getting a good look on a daily basis at the attitude and soft-skills these individuals have to have,” Santaniello said. “We know if they show up on time, their teamwork attitude. When the employer gets them, they get them with technical skills and how they are from a soft-skills perspective, which really puts the employer in a position of making an investment.” John Lombari, president of Rhode Island Carbide Tool Co. in Smithfield, which also makes precision cutting tools, confirmed that. He has hired an employee who is working out well, he said.
“SAMI [is] half technical training and half prep and screening,” Lombari said. “It weeds out those that those that are not truly cut out for this. … [Still] we have to train them because we do a lot of specialty work in precision-cutting tool manufacturing.”
Blount Boats Inc., of Warren, hired seven welders from SAMI from a field of about 30 people who were unemployed and had some level of welding experience, said Julie Blount, executive vice president. Of those seven, four are still on the job, after working on a special project at Blount involving aluminum welding for 25 boats, Blount said.
“It’s fantastic,” Blount said. “This program was forming when we happened to need to train welders, so the timing couldn’t have been more perfect. [The four hired] are doing very well. Practice makes perfect.”
In addition to the 10 companies that are already participating, as many as six other companies are exploring possible participation, Santaniello said.
At EB, the opportunity to help shape the curriculum to meet company needs was critical, said Vlaun.
“It’s very important that these feeder pools like SAMI get established now and get built upon for the future, not only for EB but other industry partners as well as our 80-plus suppliers in the state of Rhode Island,” Vlaun said. “The value to EB is, the SAMI program is training them to EB standards.”
Donnie Daniel Jr., 47, of Warwick, who has been hired at EB but won’t officially start until August, said he had been laid off at Air Synergy in Providence, where he had been a heating and ventilation technician prior to entering the SAMI program.
“The welding process itself I didn’t understand,” Daniel said, referring to the training he got through SAMI. “The instructors made it crystal clear.” •

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