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HARTFORDBUSINESS.COM | AUGUST 21, 2023 13 $2,200,000 Financing for the construction of a 1MW solar facility Middlesex County, MA $23,000,000 Financing for the construction of three solar facilities totaling 19MW Tioga County, NY $20,000,000 Financing for the construction of four solar facilities totaling 12MW CT and MA Solar financing made Simple. Xiaolei Hua F I R S T V I C E P R E S I D E N T C O M M E R C I A L B A N K I N G Tom Borek A S S I S TA N T V I C E P R E S I D E N T C O M M E R C I A L B A N K I N G bankatpeoples.com/businessteam Member FDIC/Member DIF Eastern Workforce Investment Board Partnership; Northwest Regional Workforce Investment Board Partner- ship; Workforce Alliance Partnership; and Workplace Inc. Partnership. State Sen. Cathy Osten (D-Sprague), who was a co-sponsor of the Apprenticeship Connecticut legislation, said it's been money well invested. In the recent legislative session, the General Assembly also included $1 million for the Connecticut State Building Trades Training Institute to further its apprentice- ship programming for those in the construction industry. Osten said she's seen firsthand the impact of the Eastern CT Manufac- turing Pipeline Initiative, run by the Eastern Workforce Investment Board Partnership, which provides no-cost training to address the hiring needs of Electric Boat and other manufac- turers in that region. Legislative changes During his tour of Blackstone Indus- tries in July, Sen. Hwang (R-Fairfield) spoke at length with journeyman machinist Neil deFriesse, who rose through the company's ranks after starting decades ago as an appren- tice. DeFriesse, who is Blackstone's machine shop manager, said he learned more during his four-year apprenticeship than he ever did in a classroom, and he'd welcome the opportunity to mentor the next gener- ation of workers. "If we give them the ability to hire and train talent, they're going to grow in our state," Hwang said of the manufacturing industry. And Blackstone's Milici knows his employee base is aging and in need of young people to carry work forward in the not-too-distant future. "I have one guy that does our sheet metal work, I have one guy that powder coats and paints, I have a small machine shop with tool-and-die makers that are not far off from retire- ment," Milici said. Meantime, there are ways to further strengthen the apprenticeship program, said CBIA's Zane, including allocating more money to it. In addition, a currently required three-to-one ratio of journeymen to apprentices can be challenging for small manufacturers to meet. Changing the ratio requirement, or allowing certain exceptions through the DOL, would be a positive change, and something the CBIA might pursue during the next legislative session, Zane said. "A lot of manufacturers through COVID-19 became exceedingly lean, so they don't quite have the ratios to be able to take on apprentices, even if they have the actual capacity for them," Zane said. Source: U.S. Dept. of Labor Active apprenticeships in the U.S. APPRENTICESHIPS 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 700K 600K 500K 400K 300K 200K 100K 0