Hartford Business Journal

12 HARTFORDBUSINESS.COM | FEBRUARY 6, 2022 Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute college student Dyami Watson is interning at the Connecticut Center for Advanced Technology in East Hartford. He's shown above working in CCAT's Advanced Design Automation Lab. The state has launched a new marketing campaign to recruit more young people like Watson into manufacturing. PHOTO | CONTRIBUTED 'Hearts & Minds' New ad campaigns, college programs aim to bolster CT's manufacturing workforce By Skyler Frazer sfrazer@hartfordbusiness.com A s industries continue to search for workers to fill open positions, the state recently launched a new marketing campaign it hopes will encourage more people to consider fields such as manufacturing. The ad blitz is being paired with new programming and internship opportunities for college students that aim to further encourage young people to become engineers or manufacturing specialists. "We don't have a workforce development problem, we have a workforce growth problem," said Paul Lavoie, Connecticut's chief manufacturing officer. "We have these great advanced manufacturing facil- ities and community college centers — great ways to get people through them. We just need more people." Gov. Ned Lamont announced in December the launch of the statewide "YOU" marketing campaign designed to recruit populations most underrep- resented in the workforce, including Black and indigenous people of color, those with disabilities, people reentering society after incarceration, veterans, immigrants and women. The new effort will collaborate with the statewide "Hearts and Minds" manufacturing marketing campaign to utilize television, radio, social media, billboards and other advertising methods to highlight open job oppor- tunities in Connecticut. New Haven-based Odonnell Co. is handling both marketing campaigns for the state, and digital billboards can already be found scattered across Connecticut highways. "The message is all about show- casing the really cool things we make in Connecticut, and the really cool people who make them," Lavoie said. Illustrating what a career in manufac- turing can look like through marketing, internships and college programs is key to getting a new generation of talent employed, experts said. "The workforce is changing, the academic space is changing. Young people can have a successful career and still grow through that career," said Jackie Garo- fano, chief tech- nology officer at the Connecticut Center for Advanced Tech- nology (CCAT). "So it's about demystifying not only manufacturing as a career option, but how you then grow and develop through that." Finding workers Lavoie said the Hearts and Minds campaign ads direct people to CTMa- deHere.com, a website set up to help future workers find job postings or career training opportunities in the state's community college system. From there, the website branches off to the CareerConneCT portal, an educational hub. CareerConneCT is the state's $70-million workforce program that offers tuition-free job training, case management, supportive services and employment assistance. "If they're ready for a career, they can go right to the community colleges and talk about a career in manufacturing, and if they say I'm not sure what I want to do, they go to the CareerConnect portal," Lavoie said. And most industries, not just manufacturers, need more people. According to the state's jobs report from December 2022, there are 102,000 job openings in Connecticut. The state's manufacturing sector saw 800 new jobs filled that month, but experts still say there are thousands of open positions in the industry. OKAY Industries President and CEO Jason Howey said his company has between 15 to 20 open positions, but finding skilled workers has been a challenge. The New Britain-based medical device components manufacturer said the marketing campaign is welcomed in the industry. He emphasized the importance of letting young people know they don't need to get a four- year college degree to be successful. "I think the campaign will be very, very helpful because I think a lot of people still don't know what's out there and how cool things are in manufacturing," Howey said. Lavoie said he'll be meeting with the Odonnell Co. over the next few weeks to establish some metrics for how they'll track the marketing campaign's effectiveness. Jacquelynn Garofano Paul Lavoie

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