Manufacturers seek job applicants

BOSTON, Mass. (WWLP) - Calling all job seekers, the Massachusetts manufacturing industry is looking for you.

“There are opportunities for manufacturing in this Commonwealth and specialized manufacturing,” said Rep. Joe Wagner (D-Chicopee) who chaired a Jobs Creation Commission meeting Wednesday.

The problem is that there is a lack of middle skill workers with the technical know-how to fill these manufacturing jobs. Without the necessary applicant pool, Massachusetts manufacturers risk failing to meet the world-class standard needed to survive the future.

“Although [manufacturing companies] have openings and requirements, they have tremendous difficulty filling them with the right set of skills, or people with the right set of skills,” said Ted Bauer, the manager of workforce development programs at the Manufacturing Extension Partnership.

To address the problem, the Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP) trained 25 Springfield veterans in March 2011, some who were formerly homeless or suffering from addiction, but who were apt and capable of doing technical work. After a two-week basic skills course, they were placed in jobs at Smith and Wesson, where they’ve all been working since. MEP said many more jobs like these exist, but people don’t know about them or have a misguided view on machine shop jobs.

“It’s not as sexy,” said Leslie Parady, the project manager at the Manufacturing Extension Partnership, “It has a reputation for being dark and dirty, perhaps dangerous, but that’s the misperception from the last century. There are plenty of machine shops that are white and painted white and air-conditioned and clean enough for me to walk in like this and walk out looking just like this.”

Rep. Wagner adds there’s a misperception that manufacturing is a dying industry in Massachusetts. He said vocational schools, like one recently built in his district in Chicopee, are key to sustaining the manufacturing industry.