The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) on Thursday announced grant awards totaling $50 million to 11 organizations — with community and technical colleges either leading the projects or serving as partners — that will provide training and technical assistance to boost skilled employees for small and mid-size manufacturers.
Small manufacturers in SBA’s Empower to Grow (E2G) Program will have access to free courses, practical workshops and one-on-one advising designed to expand their operations, workforce, regulatory compliance and competitiveness in government contracting, according to SBA.
Among the selected training organizations is the Maine Community Colleges System (MCCS), which received a $5 million grant to expand access to 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 get the no-cost training, which is offered on a rolling basis approximately 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, the system’s chief workforce development officer. “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.”
The short-term workforce training classes covered by the SBA grant were developed by MCCS’ 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. Maine’s smaller manufacturing firms are a critical part of the supply chain that sustains the industry’s major employers, such as General Dynamics-Bath Iron Works, Portsmouth Naval Shipyard and Pratt & Whitney.
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Among the other E2G Program grant recipients:
- L.E. Fletcher Technical Community College in Louisiana will use a $5 million grant to support the region’s shipbuilding industry, through activities such as bootcamps in the core shipbuilding trades of ship fitting, pipefitting, pipe welding and marine electrical.
- The Iowa Valley Community College District received $5 million for training and technical assistance in robotics, automation, industrial software, advanced manufacturing, welding, machine tool competencies and related workforce pathways. It will also expand capacity through the robotics and automation associate of applied science program launching at Marshalltown Community College in the fall.
- Lehigh Carbon Community College in Pennsylvania will use its $1.4 million grant to deliver customized mobile training in areas such as advanced manufacturing, mechatronics, electrical and mechanical systems and more.
- Michigan’s Mott Community College will tap its $3.8 million grant to accelerate professional certification in high-demand fields, including welding, multi-skilled robotics, CNC machining, CDL and more.
- Mid-State Technical College in Wisconsin received $5 million to provide training into five stackable certificate pathways in quality management, manufacturing engineering, advanced manufacturing, supply chain development and workforce leadership.
- Arizona Western College is a recipient of $5 million to run a 12-month technical assistance initiative that will provide training and business advisement to small manufacturers and manufacturing startups.
Other grant recipients include two-year colleges as partners, including Oregon State University ($5 million) and the Virginia Manufacturers Association ($4.8 million).
The SBA grants are part of a recent cycle of large federal grants focused on workforce development awarded to public two-year colleges or consortia that include community and technical colleges.
