PBN INNOVATIVE COMPANIES 2020 EDUCATION/TRAINING
We Make RI
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“Innovative” is an everyday term at Cranston-based We Make RI. The 4-year-old organization dedicates itself to educating and training young people and adults in Rhode Island for careers in manufacturing.
“Whenever people ask me about We Make RI and our mission, they always say, ‘That is such a great idea!’ There is a frequent disconnect in every industry between the skills employers want and the skills potential workers have, especially in the area of manufacturing,” said We Make RI Executive Director Barbara Jackson.
Jackson said We Make RI works on “both ends of the problem.” The organization partners with employers to discover their needs, and then designs its teaching around the skills that the employers want to see.
The organization’s online accessibility was beneficial during the COVID-19 pandemic in which remote learning became commonplace.
“We knew it wouldn’t be just teaching going online, it would be everything. Throughout the pandemic, manufacturing stayed open and they still needed workers to meet production deadlines,” Jackson said.
We Make RI needed to find a way to advance students through the program and get hired without sending them from factory to factory to interviews, Jackson said. The organization implemented an updated health and safety webinar, and created online job fairs in which students could preview the prospective companies before they apply. In turn, the manufacturers could preview the employees before an online interview.
The organization continues to innovate in a time in which such vision is vital. It is currently working on a program to take unemployed restaurant, hospitality and retail workers, and transition them into manufacturing jobs. It’s also continuing to expand their learning with adding modules in Spanish and increasing its library of virtual tours.
“We’re really excited about initiating in-house production of [personal protective equipment] and other items,” Jackson said. “Students can learn the process of printing fabric and using industrial cutters and seeing machines to make real-world products that are in high demand.”
