Though the courts are still handling the records of the Northern Rhode Island Private Industry Council – a group some say failed because of mismanagement and bad bookkeeping – another state trade organization has stepped in and secured $750,000 for five Northern Rhode Island textile manufacturers. The Workforce Partnership of Greater Rhode Island was recently awarded a grant by the U.S. Department of Labor. The 18-month grant, part of more than $10 million in awards given by the U.S. Department of Labor to help communities in 11 states and the District of Columbia, is designed to give employers funding to train workers for high-skilled jobs in areas where companies are facing labor shortages.
“I always say we don’t have a worker shortage, we have a skilled shortage,” said Alexis M. Herman, United State Secretary of Labor. “I believe it’s important to invest in the skilling and training of workers to keep the economy strong in what has been in longest economic growth period in our history.”
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The award is good news for textile manufactures, who first applied for this grant more than two years ago through the Northern Rhode Island Private Industry Council.
“This really helps us keep our competitive edge,” said Richard Wagner, sales administrator for Chadwick Yarn Company in Central Falls, one of the manufacturers receiving funding. “We actually tried this two years ago, but something went wrong. So when we were contacted by the new organization, we were excited to reapply.”
According to Wagner, because almost 90 percent of his employees speak English as a second language, the funding will be used to provide English classes for employees.
“We just can’t afford costs like that,” he said. “Without (the funding) we wouldn’t be able to do it. This is really exciting for us.”
The grant is also good news for the Workforce Partnership of Greater Rhode Island. In the spring of 1998, when the Northern Rhode Island Private Industry Council began having financially problems, The Workforce Partnership of Greater Rhode Island stepped in.
”Both organizations were created by the Jobs Partnership Training Act in early 1983,” said J. Michael Koback, executive director of the Workforce Partnership of Greater Rhode Island. “When that organization went out, the state put the program under us.”
But some in the Northern Rhode Island area weren’t happy about the state’s decision.
”I think that I was one of the biggest skeptics,” said John Gregory, executive director of the Northern Rhode Island Chamber of Commerce. “Because we had worked so closely with the Northern Rhode Island Private Industry Council that when it shut down so quickly we were in a panic. But the Workforce Partnership of Greater Rhode Island has done an outstanding job. We are very pleased with what they have been able to do.”
An industry in need
Koback said the textile industry was chosen as the focus group for the grant because of its changing needs.
“In the course of doing business in the state and meeting with companies, we discovered that there was a real skill gap in the industry,” Koback said. “With companies becoming more technologically advanced in a field that has traditionally been more labor intensive, employers found that their workforce was lacking the technical skills they needed to compete.”
In addition to Chadwick Yarn Company, the four other manufacturing companies are: NAFTA Textile Mills in Lincoln, which specializes in woven fabrics, including cotton, fiber, and fiber silk; Ocean State Finishing in Woonsocket, which specializes in the dyeing and finishing of cotton, lycra, nylon, and poly fibers; Hope Webbing in both Cumberland and Pawtucket, manufactures man-made braided, woven and knitted narrow fabrics made of cotton, wool and silk; and Tytex in Woonsocket, which produces knitted textile products for medical uses.
“We felt that this was something we could do to help these companies stay competitive and keep the technological edge,” Koback said of the grant. “It’s a genesis of everything we have been working on.”
Herman said one of the reasons the proposal was chosen was because of its focus on the textile industry.
”We got 14 applications nationwide, from which we were only able to chose 6,” she said. “The real reason why we selected Rhode Island has to do with the partnership of a number of individuals and the investment in the textile industry. Textile is a vulnerable industry — not only does this program invest in giving workers new skills in high tech, but it also offers retraining opportunities in the industry itself. It supports the idea that new applications can make a difference.”
”I might also add that it emphasized English as a second language,” she continued. “And we though that was an important component.”
Congressman Patrick J. Kennedy (D) said by investing in on-site training, the Rhode Island manufacturing base can be effectively stabilized, while at the same time strengthening the state’s overall economy and providing workers with useful and necessary skills.
”This is a great victory for the textile industry in Rhode Island,” he said. “This will really help Rhode Island textile employers reinvest in their companies through their workforce.”
Kennedy agreed that programs geared towards workers using English as a second language were especially important.
”Rhode Island has one of the highest adult illiteracy rates in the country,” he said. “Along with the hard skills, in terms of actually training, many of the workers are vulnerable to layoffs because they have limited English proficiency or they are lacking a high school diploma.”
Koback said the program, created and designed by the manufacturers and the Workforce Partnership of Greater Rhode in cooperation with the Rhode Island Human Resource Development Council and the Providence Cranston Workforce Development Board, has been in the works for some time.
”This was kind of developed a while ago, but nothing happened with it,” he said. “When we found out about this grant we decided to try and get the partnership back up and running.”
According to Koback, though each manufacturer plans to use the funding for different things, each is contributing some matching funds.
”It’s running the gamut,” he said. “Some companies are looking to improve management technology, some are looking at computer driven changes, some looking at inventory changes, production methods, and others are looking at English as a second language training. All of the companies are participating in the program with in-kind contributions. Some are going allow their employees to take part and still get paid, while others are going to purchase new equipment on which to train their employees.”
“As part of the goal we are going to put together a project advisory committee, using representatives from the Workforce Development of Greater Rhode Island and upper management people from the companies involved,” he said. “This team would oversee the entire project, see that its meeting its goals and that the project is successful. It its successful we will definitely replicate it in other industries.”
More money for training
The U.S. Department of Labor grant isn’t the only recent windfall to benefit the Rhode Island work force.
Last week, Gov. Lincoln Almond announced that more than $1 million in grant funding had been awarded to 45 Rhode Island companies specifically to help them upgrade the skills of their existing workforce.
The funds come from the Competitiveness Improvement Program, administered by the Human Resource Investment Council. The annual program has awarded more than $11 million in training funds to Rhode Island’s business community, and has trained an estimated 40,000 workers from nearly 500 companies since it began three years ago.
This year’s recipients cover a wide-range of business from around the state.
