Manchester Community College is currently offering hybrid online/in-person workforce development courses for manufacturing, with the hope of introducing some as credit-bearing courses this fall.
The courses, which are being offered at MCC’s Corporate and Community Training Center, represent the college’s first-ever online manufacturing training program, said Mick Pigott, MCC’s director of business and industry services.
“We have a pretty robust manufacturing program. … We had the big challenge of trying to get it online,” Pigott said in an interview Monday. “I think this could be a good thing in terms of what the colleges are able to offer to their communities.”
Courses will be taught mostly online, with some in-person content when learning how to use certain tools and machines.
The courses currently are only being offered to students involved in state programs — like the Best Chance program for formerly incarcerated individuals — or training programs through specific employers, Pigott said. But after observing how effective the courses are, Pigott hopes to introduce them as credit-bearing courses available to all students.
“My hope is that this is something that we can grow,” Pigott said of the hybrid manufacturing courses.Â
MCC isn’t the only effort in the state to take manufacturing workforce development education to an online platform.
The Department of Labor last month began rolling out a statewide version of an online manufacturing training program that’s been used by the Eastern Connecticut Workforce Board for about a decade.
The program, 180 Skills, is an online manufacturing education platform that includes tracks for people just entering the industry who need to learn the basics, as well as manufacturing professionals looking to upskill. The program is available at no cost to all unemployed Connecticut residents.
