PROVIDENCE – Polaris MEP has received a $2.45 million grant from the Ascendium Education Group to expand equitable career pathways into advanced manufacturing for justice-impacted and underserved Rhode Islanders.
Running from March 2026 through February 2029, the three-year initiative is designed to respond to Rhode Island’s “acute manufacturing workforce shortage by strengthening the talent pipeline while opening access to high-wage, high-demand careers for individuals who have been historically excluded from opportunity,” according to a news release.
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Grant funding will support new registered apprenticeships in machine operator, tool maker and computer numeric control machinist roles, expanding apprenticeship utilization in a “historically underused” sector.
Polaris MEP will partner with Apprenticeship RI to register the Jane Addams Resource Corp. Rhode Island’s Careers in Manufacturing programs and the Community College of Rhode Island’s Fast Track to CNC Manufacturing program as pre-apprenticeships, creating a direct and supported pathway into registered apprenticeships, according to the release. In addition, the initiative will expand and sustain advanced manufacturing training pathways in partnership with the R.I. Department of Corrections, CCRI and the New England Institute of Technology.
Trainees in the RIDOC program will also receive support from Phoenix Odyssey and the Reentry Campus Program, according to the release.
“This grant allows us to significantly scale workforce pathways that connect Rhode Islanders –including justice-impacted learners – to in-demand advanced manufacturing careers,” Lindsey Brickle, director of workforce and communication partnerships at Polaris MEP, said in a statement. “Through apprenticeships, employer partnerships, and barrier-reduction supports, we are strengthening both individual economic mobility and the state’s manufacturing sector.”
Brittany Corde, senior program officer at Ascendium, said apprenticeships have the potential to open doors to high-quality careers, “but too often those pathways remain out of reach for the learners who could benefit most.”
“This partnership with Polaris MEP demonstrates how employer engagement, fair-chance hiring, and structured apprenticeship pathways can work together to create real economic mobility for justice-impacted learners while meeting urgent workforce needs,” Corde said in a statement.
Christopher Allen is a PBN staff writer. You may contact him at Allen@PBN.com.
