Murphy Delivers for Connecticut: Job Training and Manufacturing

One of the smartest investments we can make in Connecticut is in job training programs. Helping people get the skills they need to set them up for a rewarding career helps keep people in Connecticut, and it ensures that we have a workforce that’s ready to fill the thousands of manufacturing jobs of the future.

We have a long proud history of making things here in Connecticut. We’re home to large companies like Electric Boat, Pratt & Whitney, and Sikorsky, as well as their thousands of suppliers. All in all, we have more than 4,600 manufacturers in Connecticut. During my time in the Senate, I’ve highlighted a different one every week as my Murphy’s Monday Manufacturer.

I’ve visited manufacturers in every corner of the state, talking with workers about strengthening our Buy American laws and hearing from job creators about the skills they’re looking for in their workforce. Across the board, there is agreement that investing in job training programs will help make sure we have workers who are ready to fill the more than 13,000 skilled manufacturing jobs that are open across the state just this year.

That’s why in 2015, I worked to secure $6 million in federal funds from the U.S. Department of Labor to support the Eastern Connecticut Manufacturing Pipeline Initiative. The Pipeline is a collaboration among Electric Boat and Eastern Connecticut manufacturers, the Eastern CT Workforce Investment Board, colleges and technical high schools and state agencies to provide targeted STEM training for unemployed and underemployed workers.

Since securing the initial funding three years ago, the program has placed more than 1,000 people at 137 local manufacturers, including over 700 in jobs at Electric Boat. 78% of these newly hired employees had no prior manufacturing experience.

These numbers are exciting. But what makes the difference to me is talking to the people who have gone through the program. I’ve met young people who are just starting out in a career that pays well and enables them to build their families here in Connecticut. And I’ve talked with workers who made a career pivot and were re-trained for new jobs in fields like welding, precision manufacturing and more. I’m going to keep fighting to expand these job training programs so that we can put people in Connecticut to work.