Training grants path to business growth

SETTING THE STANDARD: Electro Standards Laboratories will receive $31,442 to train about 54 employees under the Incumbent Worker Training grant program. Above left, Raymond Sepe, vice president of research and development, and Raymond Sepe Sr., president. / COURTESY ELECTRO STANDARDS LABORATORIES
SETTING THE STANDARD: Electro Standards Laboratories will receive $31,442 to train about 54 employees under the Incumbent Worker Training grant program. Above left, Raymond Sepe, vice president of research and development, and Raymond Sepe Sr., president. / COURTESY ELECTRO STANDARDS LABORATORIES

Losing time running a printing press while searching for a misplaced screwdriver is a small but potentially costly inefficiency, says one business owner who will be using a state grant to implement a lean manufacturing program.
Barry Couto, co-owner of Barrington Printing in Cranston, sought and got a $15,600 grant – exactly half of what the Lean program costs to train 22 employees – in March from the Incumbent Worker Training grant program administered by the Governor’s Workforce Board Rhode Island.
Couto and 24 other businesses obtained grants for the first time. Another 43 businesses are repeat award winners. Matching the grant is a condition of the award.
Implementing lean manufacturing production techniques like having a place to keep tools organized is part of a larger goal to increase efficiencies as Barrington Printing, which in 2013 had its best year ever, considers investing in a sixth printing press, Couto said.
“We run two shifts here and I have a sense that, the way we grew last year, if we grow at that rate this year, we’ll come close to filling our capacity on the equipment side,” said Coutu. “We grew 11.5 percent in sales last year.
“So, before I go ahead and make a substantial investment in equipment,” he explained, “I want to make sure we are working as efficiently as possible. And if we learn how to do things more efficiently we can be more competitive with our pricing.”
Business growth is one reason some of the 102 business owners said they chose to apply and compete for more than $1.5 million in state training grants this year. All told, 68 received awards, and the state was able to add $800,000 from fiscal 2015 to the $700,000 available from fiscal 2014, said Rick Brooks, executive director of the Governor’s Workforce Board Rhode Island.
“The board had intended to issue another [request for proposals] in October, but given the large amount of qualified proposals and the interest in training now, there was every reason to award the additional funding,” Brooks said.
Grants range in size from $5,000 to $40,000 and are available to all for-profit and nonprofit businesses in the state that contribute to the Job Development Fund. The program has been running since at least 1993, Brooks said.
Pent-up demand occurred in fiscal 2013 because funding had been cut and no grants were awarded the previous year, Brooks said. In fiscal 2014, demand initially was lower than expected, but ended up exceeding expectations, he said. The higher demand is a result of increased outreach and visibility for the program, as well as a clear interest on the part of businesses to invest matching resources to train their employees, Brooks said.
“It’s [partly] speculation, but when times are very difficult, training … is expendable,” Brooks explained. “When businesses have a bit more confidence … they’re more willing to invest in the future, and training employees is really an investment in [that].”
One company that benefited from past grant funding as it pursued more growth and successfully reapplied for another grant this year is Electro Standards Laboratories, also of Cranston. The firm will receive $31,442 to train about 54 employees, said Jeannette Gouin, a business-development representative.
The company develops systems and products for launching aircraft on aircraft carriers, as well as ocean-wave energy conversion for the U.S. Navy. The company also has expertise in developing diverse systems for electric motor controls, power, communications and data acquisition. Advanced power systems are the direction in which the industry is headed, in part because improved electric motor systems conserve fuel, said Gouin.
In the past two years, the firm became a prime U.S. Navy contractor through the Navy Seaport-e, a critical federal government electronic-contracting platform used to bid on jobs, said Tina Corticelli, another business-development representative for the company.
“We’re very thankful that we’ve been awarded [the grant], because it has helped us tremendously in the past,” said Corticelli. “Our employees must be trained in how to effectively use the Seaport-e Website portal, evaluate solicitations, prepare and submit proposals and utilize the portal as a marketing tool.
“This is a huge piece of our business and allows tremendous growth and opportunity for not only Electro Standards Laboratories, but the economy for the state,” added Corticelli.
Twin River Casino is another first-time recipient of a grant, and considers training “a cornerstone of our plan for success,” spokeswoman Patti Doyle said in an email. The $25,163 the casino will match will be used to train nearly 1,600 employees using site workshops, lectures from guest presenters and role-playing techniques, for example, Doyle said. About 80 percent of Twin River’s workforce is comprised of Rhode Islanders, she said.
“The success of Twin River has been due in no small part to the emphasis we place on employee training, with a strong focus on guest relations, which in turn helps to ensure a positive guest experience,” Doyle said.
Nonprofits also won awards, including Child and Family Services of Newport County, which garnered $23,800 to train 164 of its 250 full- and part-time employees in three different program areas in an effort to curb turnover, said grant writer Michael Breton.
About $17,300 would go to certification training for family centered treatment, Breton said; $5,000 would help cover a Newport Initiative presentation series of speakers for which staff can earn continuing education credit; and $1,500 would be used to bring in an outside trainer to address how staff work with children under the care of the R.I. Department of Children, Youth and Families.
“I tailored what we asked for to known matching funds and made sure of that before we applied,” said Breton. “We’re not flush with money. These safety-net programs are always struggling for money. There’s less available from state resources.”
Child and Family President and CEO Marty Sinnott said the money is “not enough, but it’s a start.
“This is a really interesting opportunity to combine private philanthropy with government. That in and of itself is really noteworthy and it will enable us to do some important things,” Sinnott said.
On the flip side, turnover is a challenge in early-childhood education and group homes where some part-time staff members are earning between $9 and $11 an hour, he said.
“That’s too low considering what we expect of them,” Sinnott said. “We need to value that contribution higher, and we need to do that with training retention and compensation. I just want to encourage us to think bigger … in terms of multiple years.”
Greater training benefits would accrue if workforce development was enhanced with grants over multiple years, he said.
“I don’t want to diminish the work we’ll do [with this grant], but workforce development needs to be a long-term priority for the state,” Sinnott said. •

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