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The announcement coincides with the program beginning its third year at the community college.
“The grant will directly go toward scholarships and programming to benefit Housatonic Community College manufacturing students,” said Susan Hitchcock, manager of community affairs at Sikorsky.
“This is a great opportunity for the Foundation and the College to illustrate that our mission is dependent on support for these specialized programs from the private sector community. We are fortunate that Governor [Dannel] Malloy saw the need for the Advanced Manufacturing Center and helped establish it here two years ago,” said Chris Carollo, executive director of the foundation.
The Advanced Manufacturing Machine Technology certificate is designed to provide students with the advanced manufacturing skills for those seeking employment in machine technology and CNC manufacturing environments.
Students develop advanced manufacturing skills in mathematics, blueprint reading, principles of quality control, lathe I and II, milling I and II, and CNC I and II.
Students spend half their time in classroom activities and half in hands-on activities in the college’s new Advanced Manufacturing Center at the Bridgeport Campus.
“We are doing very well in placing our students in jobs as soon as they complete their course of study,” said Ken Lisk, vice president of the foundation and a member of the Advisory Board to the Program. “We have currently placed 76 percent of the students who have completed the course of study over the last two years in manufacturing jobs. That exceeds our goal of 72 percent, and the range of starting salaries for these positions is between $32,000 and $45,000. We have had spouses go through the program together, which means you now have a household making around $80,000 a year after 18 months of training,” Lisk added.
Paul Timpanelli, president of the Bridgeport Regional Business Council, praised the program's contribution to the local economy.
“If there is one thing we know, given the rich history of manufacturing in the greater Bridgeport area, it’s that manufacturing jobs bring stability to the community and help create other jobs,” said Timpanelli.“There is no doubt that in any conversation about economic regional development I have had in the last six months, the importance of getting manufacturing back on track here is front and center."
“We are very conscious of the significance of where we are located and of the history of manufacturing in the region,” said Shane Eddy, senior vice president of operations at Sikorsky. “Our community work is important to our employees and it’s important to our management. We’re pleased that we can continue to support the Foundation as we have for many years, as the manufacturing program obviously plays very close to home for us."
For more details on the mission of the Housatonic Community College Foundation, go to www.hcc.commnet.edu/hccf.
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