Hartford Business Journal

8 Hartford Business Journal • June 18, 2018 • www.HartfordBusiness.com By Gregory Seay gseay@HartfordBusiness.com C onnecticut taxpayers could fund up to $50 million to train and certify as many as 10,000 eligible residents to fill job shortages in man- ufacturing, health care and construc- tion, workforce development pros say. State lawmakers at the end of this year's legislative session quietly autho- rized the "Apprenticeship Connecticut" initiative, which requires the state Department of Labor and workforce-de- velopment agencies in the Hartford area and statewide, to identify and make "job ready'' thousands of unemployed and underemployed residents, ranging from teens to middle-agers, authorities say. The legislation, which was signed by Gov. Dannel P. Malloy, authorizes the state Bond Commission to appropri- ate $50 million for the program. It's unclear, however, if that funding will be greenlighted. A spokesman for Malloy, who chairs the Bond Commission, said it is too early to tell if the funding will be considered at the commission's next meeting, scheduled for July. If the money is approved, the first apprentice-trainees could be matched with their employer-sponsors by as early as fall, said Jim Boucher, chief strategy officer for Hartford's Capital Workforce Partners. The effort would be one of the state's most ambitious job-hiring targets in recent memory. "It really is a dual goal here,'' Bouch- er said. "This started from the em- ployer-demand side. But we saw the workforce-development needs coming from the unemployed, underemployed and youth-talent pipeline.'' Connecticut's apprenticeship initia- tive, among its other state workforce- development efforts, comes as several key industries seek to hire qualified workers to meet demand at home and abroad for their products and services. A major challenge, skills-development and job-placement experts say, is obtain- ing manufacturing talent. Boucher, too, points to in-state shortages for medi- cal and nursing assistants, and other "middle-skills jobs'' requiring more than a high school diploma but not necessar- ily a college degree. This nation's defense buildup, coupled with Americans' fattened pay- checks from the recent federal tax cut, has rallied more workers to Groton submarine-builder Electric Boat, East Hartford military- and passenger-jet engine maker Pratt & Whitney and its sister aerosystems maker United Technologies Aerospace Systems in Windsor Locks, as well as Stratford- based Sikorsky Aircraft. Between them, plus labor needs from legions of parts and materials suppliers across Connecticut, they will require some 13,000 workers, accord- ing to a recent jobs-skills survey/anal- ysis from the Connecticut Business & Industry Association. Program details Apprenticeships, in which novices are trained and mentored as to the broad facets and nuances of a par- ticular skill, such as welding, metal Malloy vetoes bill expanding apprenticeship tax credit Despite efforts by state lawmakers to boost apprenticeship training in Connecticut, Gov. Dannel P. Mal- loy earlier this month refused for a second time to extend the state's manufacturing apprenticeship tax credit to small employers. Malloy vetoed Senate Bill 261, which would have granted small- and mid- sized manufacturers access to a tax credit available to larger companies that train apprentices. The governor said the expansion would create a revenue shortfall of $650,000 unaccounted for in the bipartisan state budget. The bill, which was approved by the House and Senate, would have allowed investors or owners of smaller manufacturers operating as so-called "pass-through entities" to claim the credit against their state income-tax returns. Manufacturing executives, who argued the bill would make it less expensive to hire, train and retain new workers, have advocated for similar legislation at least three times in the past five years. But the governor says the bill is flawed given its ability to signifi- cantly reduce the tax liability, poten- tially to zero, of individual investors in manufacturing companies. Malloy noted that he vetoed a similar bill in 2016. In a letter explaining his action to Secretary of the State Denise W. Merrill, Malloy said the measure "should not be used to shield indi- vidual investors from paying their fair share for state services, espe- cially when the cost is not offset by spending cuts or other revenue." Tax-credit supporters argued the apprenticeship program has helped reduce the manufacturing labor short- age, in which an estimated 3.5 million U.S. manufacturing jobs were unfilled in 2017, according to government data. Several state lawmakers, including Democratic House Speaker Joe Aresi- mowicz, have called for a veto override. – Joe Cooper Apprenticeship Push CT looking to bond $50M to create more 'job-ready' citizens Waterbury's Noujaim Tool Co. is a Connecticut manufacturer that has found success with its apprenticeship-training program. PHOTO | CONTRIBUTED

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