Training programs hosted at the OSHA Education Center at Keene State College. (Courtesy of Keene State College)
The tight labor market means many employers need help training new employees and upskilling existing staff, but they want to make sure it is a smart investment with the highest return-on-investment possible.
Many employers are turning to colleges and universities to create customized training programs that focus on specific skills they need for their workforce. Deciding what type of training and how to provide it starts with a request from the employer, says Lynn Szymanski, director of workforce development for Great Bay Community College, which provides several workforce development training programs in the Seacoast. The college works in three buckets when it comes to training employees, Szymanski says—corporate customized training, open enrollment courses, and apprenticeships.
Trainings can be developed for entire divisions or for just a couple of employees who need training in a specific area, Szymanski says. And customized training programs don’t have to break the bank as there are resources available to help employers invest in their workforce. Companies can apply for funds to upskill their employees through the NH Employment Security’s WorkInvest program, formerly the NH Job Training Fund. Applications seeking grant funds totaling $70,000 or more must be approved by the Governor and Executive Council. “I find the state of New Hampshire is easy to work with,” Szymanski says, adding that many of GCC employers utlize this funding source.
As community colleges work in a variety of subject areas, Szymanski says she tries to always include the instructor in the design process. “They can ask more specific questions of the employer than I can,”
she says.
Keene State College also works with employers to develop customized training courses. Jennifer Fritz, Keene State’s director of graduate studies and extended education, says some companies send employees for semester long, credit-based courses on campus in its Sustainable Product Design and Innovation program (SPDI) or “Speedy.” Others involve instructors providing customized programs at the company. “We have a 10-week model where we have instructors visit the company two times a week in the evenings, and we have an on-campus training classroom that can be utilized as well,” she says.
Those courses are often designed alongside the companies to meet their needs and include such subjects and skills as accounting, managerial training, communications and quantitative decision making, among others. One company, Hitchiner Manufacturing, created their own certificate. “Once completed, students receive certificates and are eligible for levels of promotion they wouldn’t normally be eligible for,” Fritz says.
Last year, Fritz says her department provided services to more than 10 companies and organizations in the Monadnock Region taught by a mix of Keene State faculty, adjunct faculty and industry experts. Course costs depend on whether a company is sending employees to the Keene campus, which can cost just over $2,000 per employee or it can vary if instructors are visiting the company. “When we go out to the company, we charge a flat rate that involves a negotiation,” says Heather Jasmin, educational program coordinator for Keene State.
Colleges Develop Strategic Partners
While colleges and universities have experts among their faculty to provide training, they also have strategic partnerships with contracted experts. Szymanski says most of the trainers for customized workforce training are contractors with the specific experience and knowledge to meet a company’s needs. “When possible, we also hire our full-time faculty to help with the training as well,” Szymanski says.
Keene State is partnering with the American Center for Optics Manufacturing (AmeriCom), a nationwide initiative to address the defense industry’s needs for a skilled workforce that can produce precision optics. Within the next year, Fritz says, Keene State and AmeriCom will be working with various diamond turning manufacturing companies in NH to establish a training facility on campus. Diamond turning—unlike conventional turning— is a precision machining process that can generate surface profiles with accuracies of a few nanometers.
“This is really going to be huge for this region,” Fritz says, explaining that diamond turning involves the precise cutting of glass or metal. “Corning in Keene uses diamond cutting for the mirror in the Hubble telescope.” Corning’s NH facility also engineered and manufactured key optical instruments for the James Webb Space Telescope.
Vygon, an international company with a facility in Dover that produces single-use, high-tech medical devices including neonatal and cardiovascular products, recently requested a customized training program from Great Bay Community College and is on its second round of training, Szymanski says. Donna Murray, Vygon’s director of human resources and health, safety and environment, says after the initial request for training, the college partnered with Optimize Inc., a company specializing in workforce training.
“We were looking for something more customized to meet our needs,” says Murray. “Optimize has a lot of real-life experience in manufacturing, and this is always a plus because they know what we’re doing, and we can brainstorm together.”
Vygon had specific challenges that included long set-up times, says John Dubois, president of Optimize. “We have training in set-up reduction and use a company’s own setups as our laboratory to show them concepts that we employ to shorten their set up time,” he says. “This allows them to have more available worktime.”
After consulting with Optimize, Vygon also identified the need to provide employees with communication and leadership training, Murray says. “What we find, and I’ve been in HR for manufacturing companies for 40 years, is that people come in at the entry level and get promoted but don’t have actual training in interpersonal skills,” she says. “We need to supplement what they bring to the table.”
Dubois says his company has a strong relationship with NH’s community colleges. “They do a great job making people understand the importance of investing in employees,” he says. “The state also does a good job in providing grant money because of the transferable skills. It’s about investing in people.”
While Dubois says customized workforce training isn’t new, there has been a rebound since the pandemic when these trainings were put on hold. “I’d say [trainings] are ‘new again’ and that has a lot to do with COVID. No one wanted outside people walking through their plants making everyone sick,” he says. “Now we have a very busy project list.”
Creating Apprenticeship Programs
Apprenticeships are important tools when it comes to training NH workers, says Lynn Szymanski, director of workforce development for Great Bay Community College.
ApprenticeshipNH is a workforce training program offered by the Community College System of NH (CCSNH) providing Registered Apprenticeship and pre-apprenticeship programs in various industries throughout the state.
Apprenticeship programs are designed to offer direct hands-on training from employers, pairing apprentices with a mentor in the company, while classroom training is provided by CCSNH.
The program is funded by U.S. Department of Labor Employment and Training Administration grants, and it offers technical assistance to employers to create programs. Syzmanski says instruction related to an apprenticeship can be customized, use scheduled credit-bearing courses, or use a hybrid approach.
According to NH Employment Security (NHES) there were 2,723 active apprentices in NH during FY22 and 1,203 new apprentices. There were 54 new registered apprenticeship programs established in FY 2022 for a total of 433 in NH. Of those, 358 programs had active apprentices during FY 2022.
Construction and extraction occupations accounted for 62% of active registered apprentices. Electricians and plumbers were the two most common apprenticeships in NH, with more than 1,300 active apprentices between these two occupations. Apprenticeship programs are also available for advanced manufacturing, health care, construction and infrastructure, hospitality, business and finance, automotive tech and IT companies.
The Community College System of NH received a $3.2 million grant from the U.S. Department of Labor in 2023 to increase access to ApprenticeshipNH and not just in traditional trades, Syzmanski says, explaining part of the grant money will be used to diversify into such industries as cybersecurity, clean energy and education.
Bootcamps Help Manufacturers Upskill Workers
Jonathan Mason, director of workforce development at Nashua Community College (NCC), works with companies to assist them with a wide range of training they need.
NCC runs two certificate programs referred to as “Bootcamps” that include a micro-electronics program sponsored by BAE Systems, a large defense contractor in Nashua, as well as a precision manufacturing program that is working closely with Southeastern New England Defense Industry Alliance (SENEDIA), which was formed in the early 2000’s to help the defense industry with workforce and economic development.
Companies such as Electric Boat and Granite State Manufacturing have trained employees through the precision manufacturing program. “[Manufacturers] are in desperate need of people with skills. The beauty of the bootcamps is that they are quick in, quick out, and they fill a need,” Mason says.
More than 300 people have gone through NCC’s micro-electronics program, which offers 29 classes and each class requires 400 hours of class time. “We’re training people for specific jobs,” Mason says, adding that students are also being taught soft skills, such as how to dress, interview for a job and act appropriately at work. The program’s success rate is 97% and Mason believes these soft skill lessons are a big part of the reason why.
Students who complete the programs receive a non-credit certificate as well as some credit that can be applied to a degree program.
“We’re now sending some of our new hires for the microwave stockroom to the first week of NCC’s micro-electronics boot camp, and we’re launching a test technician boot camp,” says Butch Locke, strategic operations director for BAE systems. “In addition, we are launching a test technician boot camp with NCC, Manchester Community College and New Hampshire Technical Institute.”