Training key to bridging skills gap

TRAINED RESPONSE: Senesco Marine recently hired two Rhode Islanders after they completed a federally funded, state-managed, on-the-job-training program. Picture above is one of those employees, Christopher Whalen. / PBN PHOTO/BRIAN MCDONALD
TRAINED RESPONSE: Senesco Marine recently hired two Rhode Islanders after they completed a federally funded, state-managed, on-the-job-training program. Picture above is one of those employees, Christopher Whalen. / PBN PHOTO/BRIAN MCDONALD

With an associate degree in automotive technology from New England Institute of Technology, 29-year-old Christopher Whalen didn’t think he would fall into Rhode Island’s skills gap – the abyss between employers who are hiring for open positions and residents who don’t have the skills to fill the jobs.
Whalen is now employed and earning $16.25 an hour, with benefits, as a shipfitter at Senesco Marine in North Kingstown. But it took him years to get from automotive school to what he now sees as his career in the shipbuilding industry.
Senesco is building tugboats and barges with 200 permanent employees, nearly all of them living in Rhode Island, said Human Resources Manager Bobbijo Marcotte. Senesco currently also has about 80 contract workers from out of the area, mostly from the South and even from China, where 10 welders contracted through an employment agency that handles the work visas hail from.
“They’re excellent [workers], very well-trained,” Marcotte said of the out-of-state workers. “If we could find Rhode Islanders who are trained welders, we’d hire them.”
Senesco recently hired two Rhode Islanders after they completed a federally funded, state-managed, on-the-job training program. Two more are in training and doing well, she said.
Senesco could hire a total of 10 more welders and pipefitters if good candidates were available, said Marcotte.
The shipbuilding industry is so in need of skilled employees, Marcotte literally doubled her efforts to get the on-the-job training funds. She sought candidates through both Workforce Solutions of Providence/Cranston and The Workforce Partnership of Greater Rhode Island, she said. The Federal Workforce Investment Act program is administered by the two local workforce-investment boards. Two candidates were approved through each organization.
Last year, the R.I. Department of Labor and Training placed 186 Rhode Islanders in on-the-job training through the program, said spokesperson Laura Hart. So far this year, 81 residents have been placed in training.
Businesses and potential trainees must meet certain requirements to participate in the program, said Nancy Olson, executive director of the Workforce Partnership.
Among the guidelines are that the potential employee be unemployed or a dislocated worker, said Olson.
One of those who turned out to an excellent fit is Whalen, she said.
Whalen is on a career path now, but getting the skills he needed to become gainfully employed in a job with a future was a bit of a bumpy road. Whalen got his associate degree in automotive technology from NEIT and went looking for work, but the automotive industry wasn’t looking for him.
“The automotive dealers want five years of experience and the small shops pay about $9 an hour,” said Whalen.
He eventually gave up on finding an automotive job and went to work at the Sbarro restaurant at Warwick Mall and became a manager.
The March 2010 floods put Warwick Mall underwater and Whalen out of his restaurant job.
His unemployment ran out, and he wasn’t approved for extended benefits, so he made do by picking up odds-and-ends jobs.
When he heard his brother’s employer, Senesco Marine, was hiring welders and shipfitters, Whalen went down to apply. He found out about the on-the-job-training program.
“We have people who are unemployed with no experience and we train them as welders and shipfitters,” said Marcotte. “During training they earn $14 an hour.” Half of the $14-an-hour wages are reimbursed to Senesco through the Federal Workforce Investment Act. Businesses in any area of the state can participate, said Hart.
The federal funding for the on-the-job training comes through the Rhode Island State Workforce Investment Office, which is responsible for oversight, monitoring and policy of the program. The state office works in cooperation with the DLT.
Whalen, like all the on-the-job-training candidates, had to be approved for the program. He was amazed by the speed of the process.
“I came down for an interview on a Thursday and I was hired on Monday,” said Whalen, who went into the shipfitter training.
After he finished the six months of training, he and Senesco found it was a good fit, and he was hired for a permanent position.
“I would stay here for a career,” Whalen said of Senesco.
Another Rhode Islander looking toward a career at Senesco is 20-year-old Nick Forte of Smithfield. He went to community college for a year doing general studies and didn’t have a specific career plan. He found Senesco’s on-the-job-training program online through Network RI, DLT’s system to connect employers and workers.
He came to meet with Marcotte, got his application approved and he’s in the shipfitter-training program.
If the trainee successfully completes the training program, he or she is expected to be hired, said Olson. The federal reimbursement stops once the trainee becomes a permanent employee.
“Our budget goes through June 30, and we do have money available for on-the-job training,” Olson said. “It’s one way to address the skills gap, even if it’s only a small piece of the picture.” •

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