The U.S. Department of Labor on Tuesday awarded Connecticut a $6 million grant to develop training programs for the manufacturing and aerospace industries.
The money will go to funding statewide aerospace training programs and to the Eastern Connecticut Manufacturing Pipeline Initiative, which was initially created to develop customized training programs for manufacturing in the eastern portion of the state.
The eastern initiative was developed in response to Electric Boat’s expansion and need to hire 520 new and replacement workers over the next several years in order to fulfill is nuclear submarine contracts. The initiative is comprised of manufacturers, community colleges, technical high schools and workforce development organizations.
The initiative will be led by the Eastern Connecticut Workforce Investment Board with the labor department’s Office for Veterans’ Workforce Development. It will work with the state’s four other regional workforce boards to expand the programming as needed.
