Worker training pays off for us all

Five New Bedford manufacturers are splitting about half a million dollars in educational grants through the Greater New Bedford Workforce Investment Board (and kicking in about a quarter-million dollars of their own). In so doing, the state and companies are working in partnership to make an investment in their most important resource – people.
The training that the grants will underwrite ranges from learning the basics of Six Sigma manufacturing procedures to English as a second language. In some cases, the classes are designed to make up for what should have been learned in high school – little more than half of New Bedford students graduate from high school, and only 10 percent of the city’s residents have a bachelor’s degree, compared with about 41 percent for the state as a whole.
Featured in a story in this week’s Providence Business News is Nameplates for Industry Inc., a company that is training its employees in lean manufacturing techniques and hoping to drive down its cost structure. Competitive advantage in today’s economy comes from knowledge-based innovation. But price advantages are still important as well. This kind of program, used in Massachusetts and Rhode Island, shows that knowledge can be used to drive costs down, making the company healthier and its workers more secure.
A little more of that kind of investment would go a long way to strengthening the economic health of the region.