Lynn Welding of Newington grew its sales 44 percent since November 2010. Over the same time, the company increased its workforce by 33 percent.
The difference? The company’s workers received training with $34,000 in grants from the state and U.S. departments of labor. That training qualified Lynn Welding for more precision welding work, which it quickly received.
“I can’t say it is all because of the state program, but it is a major part of it,” said Darius Kania, vice president of Lynn Welding.
Lynn was one of a handful of companies in Connecticut that took advantage of a U.S. Department of Labor $1.3 million grant to fund a pilot study for its Early Warning Demonstration Program. The money, awarded to the state at the start of the year, was gobbled up in four months.
While the federal Department of Labor grant was a one-time award to Connecticut, businesses in the state have been lining up to explore other options available to them, especially after the jobs bill passed the state General Assembly in October. Those state programs found a fertile field among businesses with fewer than 50 employees.
However, hundreds of Connecticut businesses with 50-100 employees are still waiting on the General Assembly to expand the programs making them eligible for help too. A special legislative session is planned after lawmakers failed to expand access to the worker training funding in the waning days of this year’s regular session.
Statewide, there is a long waiting list of companies with 50-100 employees hoping access to worker training programs such as the Step Up initiative will become available, said Sandra Rodriguez, spokeswoman for Capital Workforce Partners in Hartford.
The state Senate passed a measure in this year’s legislative session expanding that programming to companies with 100 or fewer employees, but time ran out at the end of the session before the House could take action on the bill.
This and other measures that seemingly were shoo-ins for passage are the reason the General Assembly plans to reconvene in a special session later this year, where the employee training expansion is expected to pass.
“I fully expect that will be part of the agenda,” said State Sen. John Fonfara (D-Hartford). “It is a good program. It is helping out businesses.”
Under the program created in the special jobs session in October, the Connecticut Workforce Development Council offered incumbent worker training to 58 companies in the state, with manufacturers comprising 62 percent of those receiving money.
“The small guys, they can’t wait to get this assistance,” said Tom Phillips, president and chief executive for Capital Workforce Partners. “We still have to pay attention to keeping our current businesses and current workers.”
The incumbent worker training program signed up those 58 companies with little marketing and had to stop after less than six months once its funding of $1 million ran out. Another 56 companies are on a waiting list to receive funding. The initiative receives another $1 million starting July 1.
“We have a sizeable number of companies that are going to have to wait until July 1, assuming everything goes well,” Phillips said.
Incumbent worker training is important to helping Connecticut companies remain competitive and grow their revenue streams by teaching their current employees how to master new techniques and machines, said Karen Quesnel, business services specialist for the Connecticut Department of Labor.
“The intent was not only to benefit the companies but benefit the workers in creating portable skills,” Quesnel said.
Lynn Welding used its $34,000 award to train its employees and became certified under the National Aerospace and Defense Contractors Accreditation Program, enabling the business to grow its service offerings.
“After that happened, there was definitely an increase in business,” Kania said. “The greatest benefit I have seen here is the mood of the employees. You can just tell there is a new vibe in the shop.”
The Newington company also received special certification to perform welding on parts for East Hartford aerospace manufacturer Pratt & Whitney, which resulted in many of the aerospace component manufacturers in New England sending their parts to Lynn for welding.
“Anyone that is working on Pratt & Whitney products that need them welded, they can have that done at Lynn Welding,” Kania said. “It is a remarkable amount of change we’ve had here.”
The Connecticut Workforce Development Council offers a type of worker training through the Step Up program, which incentivizes businesses to hire and train new employees. The program offers six months of new employee salary reimbursement for employers, or $12,500 in grants for small manufacturers to train new employees.
“The manufacturers are really excited that something is available to them,” said Janet Gemmiti, Step Up coordinator for Capital Workforce Partners. “It is on-the-job training.”
The Step Up program is limited to companies with 50 or fewer employees. For non-manufacturers, employees are only eligible for salary reimbursement if they are from a city with a population of at least 80,000 and an unemployment rate higher than the state average. In that capital region, those are Hartford, Bloomfield, New Britain, Plymouth, East Hartford, East Windsor and Bristol.
If the General Assembly is able to pass legislation in the special session opening the program up to companies with 100 or fewer employees and make it available for every city and town, the number of companies signing up will grow significantly, Gemmiti said.
“Businesses are very excited to have a program like this for them,” Gemmiti said. “This is affording them an opportunity to get more business.”
