DeWITT, N.Y. — Development of the local workforce is part of the “critical mission” of a community college. “… to make sure that [we’re] training students for the kinds of jobs they can get here right at home,” said Casey Crabill, president of Onondaga Community College (OCC). OCC is among the community colleges of the […]
DeWITT, N.Y. — Development of the local workforce is part of the “critical mission” of a community college.
“… to make sure that [we’re] training students for the kinds of jobs they can get here right at home,” said Casey Crabill, president of Onondaga Community College (OCC).
OCC is among the community colleges of the State University of New York (SUNY) that have applied for federal funding to provide training for mechatronics.
The office of U.S. Senator Charles Schumer (D–N.Y.) describes mechatronics as a “multidisciplinary field that incorporates engineering, mechanics, electronics, and other technical work.”
Crabill spoke Sept. 22 at the Byrne Dairy pasteurization plant in DeWitt, where Schumer offered his support for the SUNY application.
SUNY contends the field of mechatronics is “rapidly growing,” and Central New York could create more than 2,800 jobs in the industry by 2020.
But the region doesn’t have enough people trained in this field to make these potential jobs “a reality,” according to Schumer’s office.
The senator spoke at the Byrne Dairy pasteurization plant, a business he said could hire people with training in mechatronics.
“We have two things going on. On the one hand, here in Central New York, we literally have hundreds of jobs that don’t [get] filled because the people don’t have the skills for them. But second, we have lots of unemployed people, particularly our veterans, who are looking for work,” Schumer said in addressing reporters outside the Byrne Dairy plant.
TAACCCT funding
OCC is one of the 30 SUNY schools across New York that are collectively submitting an application for $15 million in funding from the U.S. Department of Labor’s Trade Adjustment Assistance Community College and Career Training (TAACCCT) grant program, Schumer explained.
The schools would use the TAACCCT program funding to establish a systemwide program that would train veterans and the unemployed in the mechatronics field.
Specifically, OCC would receive more than $517,000 in funding to start up the program on its campus, according to Schumer’s office.
OCC and other SUNY schools would then have the funding to train more than 1,200 eligible upstate New York workers in two-year programs to prepare them for careers in mechatronics and advanced manufacturing, Schumer said.
“The grant would buy them the equipment they need to train the people and pay for some of the teachers and professors to train the people, but they’d be training for jobs that were available and that were needed at Byrne [Dairy] and other places,” said Schumer.
Potential fields for these workers include maintenance and repair workers, industrial-machinery mechanics, technical-sales representatives, electrical and electronics-industry technicians; and inspectors, testers, sorters, and weighers.
These jobs can pay up to $34 an hour in some cases, according to Schumer’s office.
It’s not the first time OCC has pursued funding from the TAACCCT grant program.
The school also used a $1.2 million grant from the same program to develop a one-year, advanced manufacturing — machining program, which the New York State Department of Education approved in June, according to a June 25 news release from OCC.
If the U.S. Department of Labor awards the funding, OCC and 30 other SUNY schools would be able to partner with more than 70 employers in the advanced-manufacturing industry that are looking to hire workers in this “highly-skilled” career field, Schumer’s office said.
The other Central New York community colleges that are a part of the consortium include Cayuga County Community College, Herkimer County Community College, and Mohawk Valley Community College.
The more than 70 employers that SUNY has lined up as local-business partners are aiming to expand their workforces, Schumer’s office said. They want to hire employees with the mechatronics skills and certifications that the program will provide.
Some of the employers that OCC will be partnering with are Byrne Dairy in DeWitt, Corso’s Cookies in Geddes, Gear Motions in Solvay, and DeWitt–based Morse Manufacturing Co., Inc.
Each of these companies has indicated a willingness to help develop the program, train students, and hire qualified graduates, according to Schumer’s office.
Contact Reinhardt at ereinhardt@cnybj.com