The following article is from the Albany Business Review:
A hot job market and Hudson Valley Community College’s $12M plan
HVCC will double the spots in advanced manufacturing program
Oct 16, 2015, 6:00am EDT
Robin K. Cooper/Managing Editor Albany Business Review
Growing demand for skilled lathe and milling machine operators is driving Hudson Valley Community College to construct a $12 million advanced manufacturing center at its Troy campus.
The two-year school is seeking $1 million from Empire State Development, New York’s economic development arm, to help finance a two-story, 40,000-square-foot manufacturing training center that will position the school to double the size of its machinist training program from 144 to 288 students.
The $1 million grant request is part of the Capital Region Economic Development Council’s 2015 submission for Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s statewide funding competition. The school has applied for funding three weeks after the Gene Haas Foundation in California awarded $1 million to Hudson Valley to help the school build the manufacturing center. The school’s advanced manufacturing program currently operates out of a 3,000-square-foot workshop on the Troy campus.
The Haas Foundation has made similar donations to create manufacturing centers at other U.S. schools. The foundation contributed $1 million to Danville Community College in southern Virginia this spring. And $1.5 million was awarded last year to help build a training center at Vincennes University in central Indiana.
“We can’t produce students fast enough to satisfy the job market,” said Dave Larkin, the professor who oversees Hudson Valley’s advanced manufacturing program.
A long list of area manufacturers from Package One in Schenectady to General Electric recruit students from the program and offer many of them jobs before they graduate. Executives say the program provides a strong pool of talent, but more graduates are needed.
“We have an opportunity here to build a manufacturing center that would rival anything in the country,” said Wynn Kintz, president and founder of Kintz Plastics Inc. in Howes Caves.
Kintz employs about 100 people who make plastic covers and parts for the medical, automotive and electronics industries. He has close to 10 graduates of the Hudson Valley program working for him now, and most of them are team leaders at his Schoharie County plant.
“There is such a crying need for people with these skills,” Kintz said.
The Albany region has seen a big uptick in the growth of manufacturing employment over the past five years, adding 3,000 jobs. That growth is a rebound of sorts; it comes as the industry has become a smaller part of the regional economy over the past 25 years. In 1990, manufacturing accounted for one out of every 10 jobs in the region. Today, the industry employs about one out of 16.
Larkin has been working with manufacturers for the past four years to develop a plan to expand Hudson Valley’s program. The center will be equipped with new milling machines, presses and lathes that will give students an opportunity to train on the latest technology. Larkin said the new space also could lead to programs to help students with marketing and communication skills add technical training. Such training could lead to careers in manufacturing sales and marketing.
Published: Fri, 16 Oct 2015 12:08:14 +0000 by d.gardner