Hartford Business Journal

www.HartfordBusiness.com October 31, 2016 • Hartford Business Journal 17 POWER UP YOUR LUNCH POWER UP YOUR LUNCH Vito's by the Park 26 Trumbull St. Hartford, CT 06103 860-244-2200 vitosct.com Bring this coupon, or mention ad in HBJ. Dine-in only, 11:30am-3pm. Not combinable with other offers, Vito's-to-go menu or pizza. $7 OFF LUNCH (per table) } program run by the Eastern Connecticut Workforce Investment Board in tandem with a pair of community colleges have gotten jobs. That includes 148 graduates who have been hired or offered jobs at Electric Boat. Pratt, too, is doing outreach. It partners in manufacturing and engineering programs, says spokesman Ray Hernandez, with Good- win College, Asnuntuck Community College and UConn. It also has collaborated, he said, with the state Department of Economic and Community Development (DECD) through the Investing in Manufacturing Communities Partnership designation. In early October, to mark National Manufac- turing Day, the Connecticut Center for Advanced Technology (CCAT) launched an ambassador program, in which Pratt is a partner, to inspire the next generation of advanced-manufacturing professionals, Hernandez said. CCAT is housed in space on Pratt's East Hartford campus. "The demand for talent across the entire aerospace industry is fierce and we recognize the need for the workforce to develop these skills in order to stay competitive," Hernan- dez said via email. " … The success of the pro- grams we support not only benefits our global workforce, but also our global supply chain — including our approximately 100 product suppliers in Connecticut — by broadening the pool of highly-skilled talent." Pipeline buildup So far, the sector's recruitment efforts appear to be taking root. UConn reports engi- neering enrollment has been trending up since 2011. It has 3,185 undergraduate engineering students this year, up from 1,976 in 2011. That includes a range of engineering disciplines, among them electrical, mechanical, biomedi- cal, computer science, and 3D/additive technol- ogy, said UConn School of Engineering Associ- ate Dean and professor Daniel Burkey. "The demand has been there,'' said Burkey. "Part of it is the commitment from the state, coupled with UConn's aggressive outreach to pre-collegiate students in Connecticut, par- ticularly with under-represented minorities, including women.'' Trinity College, Central Connecticut State University and the University of Hartford (UHart) also report an uptick in their engi- neering enrollments in recent years, for many of the same reasons. Louis "Lou" Manzione, dean of UHart's School of Engineering, Technology and Archi- tecture, says that beyond their classroom and project work, its students are exposed to small and mid-size Connecticut companies that may one day employ them through internships and on-campus networking events. UHart is among eight Connecticut engi- neering institutions whose students partici- pate in an inaugural "manufacturing skills challenge" to, says Manzione, who is a mem- ber of the Connecticut Technology Council's talent and workforce committee, "focus atten- tion to the demand for engineering talent." "It helps us to attract students," he said. "Second, it helps us retain them because they will look first for good jobs in Connecticut.'' Flow Tech Inc., a South Windsor air-han- dling equipment vendor/installer, has net- worked with UHart's engineering and technol- ogy students. Flow Tech President Rich Harper said the networking helped his firm identify sophomore and junior engineering and tech- nology students as summer interns, some of whom emerge as hiring prospects. Still, nothing is guaranteed, Harper said. Of the dozen Connecticut college graduates Flow Tech has hired the past five or six years, only three remain. "Is there competition for engineering talent? Absolutely,'' Harper said. "The biggest issue I see is people want to be in Boston, New York, Chicago. They don't want to stick around here.'' Meantime, Talbot's job offer from Turner reflects, says spokesman Chris McFadden, its broad efforts at student outreach. "We can't wait,'' McFadden said, "for the students to have a diploma in hand to reach out to them, to interest them in a career in construction, let alone with our company." n CT Manufacturers' Most Difficult Positions to Fill In 2014, the Connecticut Business and Industry Association did a survey of the state's manufacturing workforce needs. The 246 respondents were asked to identify their most difficult positions to fill. Tool & die maker 66% CNC programmer 50% CAD/CAM technician 38% CNC machinist 35% Engineer 34% Machinist 33% S O U R C E : C B I A UConn senior Georgina Talbot of Westport parlayed her summer internship with a major construction firm into a full-time job offer that she has accepted. 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