NHMA Support Has Been Crucial To the Success of Platt Manufacturing Program
MILFORD – Eighty percent of students who graduate the manufacturing technology program at Platt Technical High School land jobs, primarily with local manufacturing companies.
That percentage would be even higher except that some graduates join the military or go on to college, said David Tuttle, department head for manufacturing technology.
The manufacturing technology program has grown over the past three years since the school partnered with Housatonic Community College. This year there are 94 students and Platt had to turn away applicants to the 3½ -year program.
Tuttle attributes much of the program’s success to continuing support from the New Haven Manufacturers Association.
“The partnership with NHMA has had the biggest impact,” he said. “Their support has been dramatic and has allowed this program to grow. They’ve worked with politicians to secure funding to update our equipment, and they find ways to get us in the loop with local manufacturers. Our success is a product of the industry taking an interest in education.”
The Connecticut Technical High School System operates 16 degree-granting technical high schools, one technical education center and two aviation maintenance programs serving 11,200 students in 36 occupational areas.
Platt manufacturing students go to work at companies in the aerospace, biomedical, automotive parts, tool-making and other industries as highly skilled machine operators, quality assurance inspectors and other occupations.
Steve Fogler, owner of Stevens Manufacturing Co. Inc. in Milford, hires one or two Platt graduates every year. The company makes aerospace parts and its main customer is Sikorsky Aircraft.
“The school does a very good job,” said Fogler, who brings the students into a work-study mentoring program as juniors. “I have quite a few that have stayed and they are doing very well.”
Fogler said it’s crucial for local manufacturing firms to have a pipeline of well-trained young people, because the current workforce is aging. He has been involved with the Platt program for six years.
Kris Lorch, president of Alloy Engineering in Bridgeport, chairs the NHMA Workforce Enhancement Committee. She said a three-year-old partnership with Housatonic Community College is helping Platt turn out graduates who are highly sought after by local businesses.
“The Connecticut vocational-technical system has not been funded by the state since the 1980s, but that’s all turning around,” she said, noting that Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s October jobs bill included $20 million in bonding to fund more partnerships between technical high schools and community colleges.
Next on the NHMA agenda is a program that will offer tours of manufacturing businesses to teachers at comprehensive high schools.
“The goal is to give them a better sense of what employment is like in a manufacturing area now,” Lorch said. “It’s not a dirty, sooty business, it’s high tech, and it requires people with skills. They need to see what it looks like and understand today’s manufacturer.”
For more information
Jerry Clupper, NHMA Executive Director
203- 387-5121
jerryc@ssicg.com