State lawmakers are currently pondering a bill aimed at encouraging more middle and high school students to consider manufacturing careers.
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State lawmakers are currently considering a bill aimed at encouraging more middle and high school students to consider manufacturing careers.
House Bill 5423, which already received unanimous House approval and is now awaiting Senate action, requires state education overseers — including the education commissioner and Board of Regents for Higher Education — to establish a committee that will coordinate efforts to educate middle and high school students about manufacturing careers.
Under the bill, the committee must annually compile a catalog of manufacturing training programs at public and private educational institutions; analyze, in consultation with the manufacturing industry, whether current programs available to Connecticut students are meeting workforce needs; and, annually report its findings to the Commerce and Higher Education committees, with the first report due Feb. 1, 2017.
The bill also requires the state education commissioner to develop a program to introduce middle and high school students to manufacturing careers and a best-practices guide, in consultation with representatives from the manufacturing industry and the Connecticut Center for Advanced Technology (CCAT), to help local and regional boards of education incorporate relationships with the manufacturing industry in their middle school and high school curricula.
The bill has widespread, bipartisan support and is backed by the Connecticut Business & Industry Association, CCAT and Middlesex Chamber of Commerce, among others.
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