PBN MANUFACTURING AWARDS 2020 | Workforce Development & Productivity: New England Institute of Technology Shipbuilding/Marine and Advanced Manufacturing Institute
IT’S THE TYPE of program that takes the unemployed, even homeless, and gives them hope, all while boosting Rhode Island’s ranks of skilled tradespeople.
Webster Bank Celebrates 90 Years
By Samuel Hanna, Executive Managing Director, Commercial Real Estate, Webster Bank This year, Webster Bank…
Learn More
Consider one student who enrolled last year in the 10-week machinist program simulating on-the-job experience at New England Institute of Technology Shipbuilding/Marine and Advanced Manufacturing Institute, also known as SAMI.
Dedicated to forging his future off the streets, he pedaled his bike every day to and from the Warwick campus. When staff members learned he was homeless, they got him assistance. He subsequently found a home, new clothes, food, a trade and a job at a Cranston-based machinist production company.
“There’s a life truly changed, and he’s an example of many,” said Kathy Partington, New England Tech’s case-management supervisor.
Applicants’ ages range from those who are 18 and just out of high school, to those between 40 and 50 who lost jobs, to one 73-year-old, who, instead of enrolling, landed part-time work teaching SAMI students. The average student’s age is between 31 and 34, Partington said. About 97% of the more than 1,385 under- or unemployed state residents who enrolled have completed training since the program launched in 2014.
The federal grants supporting the institute were used to build labs, buy equipment and develop custom curricula with industry input. This program came at a time when schools had all but eliminated decade-old machine shops and as the manufacturing workforce approached retirement age.
SAMI visionaries also expected the U.S. Navy to award submarine contracts to General Dynamics Electric Boat.
“You could see it coming: Manufacturing needed new blood,” said Fred Santaniello, New England Tech’s workforce-development director. “We knew if we trained people in those areas, it would not be difficult to find jobs for them.”
SAMI’s placement rate validated these predictions. After completing one of the institute’s two free programs, more than 85% of the students have found jobs as welders, machinists and other related positions, making between $14 and $22 per hour.
Electric Boat enlisted 143 of SAMI’s original 492 fully trained students to work at Quonset Point in North Kingstown.
“It’s a shipyard, and we’re building one of the world’s most complex machines,” said Eric Korytkowski, Electric Boat’s human resources representative. “Every work, every weld has to be top-notch and go through numerous inspections. We find people hired through SAMI who know how to handle that work well.”
Since the state infused more money into SAMI through Real Jobs Rhode Island beginning in 2016, Electric Boat has trained 711 new hires there.
More than 120 state-based manufacturers – about 8% of Rhode Island’s manufacturing sector – have hired at least one SAMI student. Among them are Warren-based Magnetic Seal Corp. and Cranston’s Lavigne Manufacturing Inc.
“SAMI exposes the students to manufacturing while allowing them to learn skills needed to succeed in this industry,” said Michelle Guiney, operation excellence project manager for Magnetic Seal Corp., which supplies specialty mechanical seals to commercial and military aerospace industries.
Hiring managers agree the well-trained students come tempered to succeed in the state’s 39,613-person manufacturing workforce.
“SAMI has proven to be an excellent recruiting source,” said Liz O’Connor, human resources manager at Lavigne, which specializes in component parts for Fortune 500 clientele. “The program has a great combination of classroom and hands-on training.”
SAMI’s accomplishments are sparking new opportunities. Most recently, the Rhode Island Indian Council visited the institute to consider partnership possibilities.
Those potential opportunities, Santaniello said, include:
n Fitting Coventry and North Kingstown high school students with the necessary understanding in order to work at Electric Boat.
n Teaming with Man Up Inc. to teach prisoners being paroled skills they can parlay into jobs and reduce recidivism.
n Partnering with state educators to retrain most high school welding instructors to prepare their students for manufacturing work.
n Collaborating with the R.I. Department of Children, Youth and Families to fuse youths aging out of its program with a trade and a future.
“Because of SAMI’s success, the program has just grown,” Santaniello said. “Like a successful restaurant, word of mouth spreads and people come.”
COVID-19 UPDATE
New England Institute of Technology suspended its education and training programs, including its Shipbuilding/Marine and Advanced Manufacturing Institute, due to the COVID-19 pandemic and as a means to help flatten the curve of infection.
Essential staff has worked remotely to be able to quickly resume training once Gov. Gina M. Raimondo lifts the COVID-19 state of emergency for Rhode Island.
New England Tech officials are following guidelines from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the R.I. Department of Health in order to help make their decisions on how to move forward.
