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Date: 12/22/2015
WEST SPRINGFIELD – State Sen. Eric Lesser visited the Lower Pioneer Valley Educational Collaborative (LPVEC) on Dec. 17 for a tour after working to secure $214,000 in the state’s budget for a machining technology program.
The grant money will be used to continue building the LPVEC’s program by purchasing additional advanced machines to train students in different aspects of manufacturing, LPVEC Principal Director Don Jarvis said. Whether it is a degree in engineering or going directly into the industry, Jarvis said students would be trained to pursue their own path.
The LPVEC is made up of seven districts that send students for a split day in vocational training. Agawam, East Longmeadow, Hampden-Wilbraham, Ludlow, Southwick, Southwick-Tolland-Granville Regional and West Springfield make up the collaborative.
From these districts, Jarvis said $350,000 was budgeted to support the machining technology program, and the LPVEC will be seeking about $200,000 additional funds for more machines, with the hope of eventually being able to retrain adult workers in the area.
Lesser said the work between the state, the districts and potential private funding is crucial to getting initiatives like this moving.
“That’s really how it should be. We have a public interest in making sure our population is educated, but we also do always need industry and the employers themselves to step up because they, of course, benefit directly from the trained workforce, as well,” Lesser said. “This is a good model actually for the rest of the state in terms of building out these kinds of centers and improving this type of education for high school students. You have got to make it a collaboration between the local districts, the state, the private sector employers and increasingly there’s hopefully federal support.”
Jarvis said the program currently has one instructor, and as more students get involved, another will be added. The LPVEC opened the machining technology program up to 12 students as an exploratory option, and of those, four said they wanted to continue with it. More students will have the chance to try out the program, but the LPVEC will be limiting participation to 12 students per class because of the intensive level.
Lesser said the machining technology program fills a need in Western Massachusetts.
“There’s a common theme in the feedback that we’ve gotten back from our employers that one of the single biggest limitations to economic growth in this area in growing the manufacturing sector is access to skilled employees, a talent drain, access to skilled workers. This is ground zero of that training and of that access to that skilled workforce,” Lesser said. “We know what happens if companies don’t have access to skilled workers. Those companies leave. What we have is a continued spiral of a lack of opportunity, lack of employment for our citizens. I view this as among the absolute most important things we can be doing to expand opportunity and grow our economy in the western part of the state, is investing in our young people and investing where the jobs are, which is advanced manufacturing and skilled manufacturing.”
He also stressed the history of manufacturing in the area and how deeply rooted Greater Springfield is in the industry, beginning with Springfield Armory. Despite this, the past is threatened by lack of investment.
“We have a proud history in this area, but we can lost it, frankly, and we will lost it if we don’t make investments in this type of training, in this type of education,” he said.
Programs like this, he said, help encourage young people to stay in Western Massachusetts – getting well paying jobs, buying homes and raising families.