Workforce development in New York State is not just a goal, it’s a graduation—and, for the students among the first graduating class at Buffalo’s Northland Workforce Training Center (NWTC), it’s jobs with advanced manufacturing companies that are looking to fill skills gaps in these well-paying industries. The NWTC Aug. 16 graduation was among several summer announcements demonstrating the pace and progress of workforce development efforts throughout New York State, including new centers in the Finger Lakes and in the Capital Region and a first-in-the-nation fund to foster diversity and job training in the entertainment industry.
The Advanced Manufacturing Training Center at Northland, in partnership with SUNY Erie Community College and Alfred State College, provides degree and certificate programs in tandem with work experience that reflects industry needs. Most of the NTWC graduates have been placed at jobs with Western New York manufacturers from Moog and Allied Circuits to Harmac Medical Products and Niagara Transformer Corp. The NWTC, a public-private partnership that is a Buffalo Billion signature workforce initiative, also addresses barriers to enrollment including transportation, cost and childcare. For up to three years following graduation, students continue to have the support of career coaches and placement specialists.
August also brought announcements of new homes for workforce development training in the Finger Lakes and Capital Regions, aligned with and targeted to the strategic industries in each area. The Finger Lakes Workforce Development Center, formerly located at the Eastman Business Park, will move to a more central location in downtown Rochester, on the campus of Monroe Community College. The more central MCC Forward Center will be more easily accessible to students and residents, while still offering programs to support Eastman Business Park tenants. The $11.4 million complex is expected to create a $90 million regional economic benefit, training more than 2,300 workers over the next five years to fill the talent pipeline for high-tech companies in biomaterials, energy, functional films—and photonics, a key Finger Lakes industry.
In the Capital Region, the new Gene F. Haas Center for Advanced Manufacturing Skills (CAMS) celebrated its grand opening on Aug. 27 on the campus of the Hudson Valley Community College in Troy. The $14.5 million, 37,000-square-foot facility will help meet regional manufacturers’ needs for skilled workers by doubling the capacity in the college’s Advanced Manufacturing Technology degree program. Almost all of the students in the program, which trains machinists, toolmakers and programmers, have jobs before they graduate. CAMS features Computer-Aided Design and Computer-Aided Manufacturing simulation computer workstations, and includes labs, an advisement center and conference spaces—offering a one-stop support center for students and a place to connect with workforce partners.
Two further summer announcements reinforce the different ways New York State is expanding opportunity and building talent pipelines in strategic industries. The Empire State Entertainment Diversity Job Training Development Fund, announced in July, will support job training and workforce development across New York State’s entertainment industry. Productions participating in the New York State Film Tax Credit Program will see a small reduction in their tax credits that will be diverted into the fund. The fund’s goal is to ensure that the jobs related to the growth of New York’s entertainment industry are filled by New Yorkers who represent the state’s diversity. ESD will create regulations and administer grants to create the program—and also solicit input and suggestions from the film industry, educational community and the public to determine industry job needs and ways to ensure the greatest impact. A new Life Science Entrepreneur Development Grant program, announced in August and part of New York State’s $620 million Life Science Initiative, will help develop life science business leaders. The grant which will be awarded to qualified graduate schools of business in New York State to plan and implement an entrepreneurial training program, through a new MBA concentration or graduate-level certificate in life science entrepreneurship. Click here for more program details; applications are due Oct. 15.