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Goodwin College in East Hartford has become the first in the Northeast to offer a new manufacturing certification course. WNPR’s Harriet Jones reports.
Goodwin College has more than 3,000 students, and according to its president, Mark Scheinberg, a simple mission.
“We differentiate ourselves insofar as we want to make sure that everything that students are getting will lead to some career when they finish.”
The college has identified manufacturing as a field where job opportunities are growing -- Connecticut is estimated to have thousands of unfilled manufacturing positions, and it’s about to face a wave of retirement among skilled technicians. It’s also an industry that pays a living wage. The college is now offering certifications in manufacturing under the Manufacturing Skills Standards Council or MSSC, a Virginia based organization that offers nationally recognized training and assessment methods. Scheinberg says in addition to students coming into manufacturing for the first time, gaining a certification will be particularly important for people already working the field.
“Certainly the companies they work for know what they can do, but their skills are right now not portable. So if a company changes over to new manufacturing or if that job ends and they have to go someplace else, a certification program creates a level playing field where we know what it is our employees can do, so that they can also make their life and their career much more portable.”
Goodwin becomes the only college in the Northeast to offer the MSSC qualification.
Mark Scheinberg, the President of Goodwin College, will be a guest on Monday’s Where We Live, discussing how to prepare young people for the workforce.
