Maine’s community colleges received a $5 million federal grant to provide specialized short-term training that prepares students for work at Maine’s small and mid-sized manufacturers.
The grant is part of a $50 million U.S. Small Business Administration grant to technical schools and community colleges nationwide.
In Maine, the funds will expand access to eight existing classes in fabrication, machining, welding, blueprint reading, quality assurance, manufacturing and advanced manufacturing technologies at Central Maine Community College, Southern Maine Community College and York County Community College.
More than 600 students will receive the free training, which is offered on a rolling basis about every four to eight weeks.
“This grant allows us to take training that’s already proven itself with Maine’s largest defense manufacturers and put it directly into the hands of the small shops and suppliers that keep that supply chain running,” said Dan Belyea, chief workforce development officer for the Maine Community College System.
“These are the employers who often don’t have the time or capacity to build their own training pipeline, and this project meets them where they are,” he added.
The short-term workforce training classes covered by the SBA grant were developed by Maine Community College System’s Harold Alfond Center for the Advancement of Maine’s Workforce in collaboration with the Maine Defense Industry Alliance to increase the number of skilled workers for high-demand defense industry jobs in Maine.
