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10/9/2024
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Sen. Raptakis calls for investment in high school trades education and training
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STATE HOUSE – After speaking yesterday at a ribbon cutting of the Precision Machine Program at the Regional Career and Technical Center at Coventry High School, Sen. Leonidas Raptakis sees the need for further public investment for students and local businesses within the machining field.
“Today was a wonderful event and the new Precision Machine Program will give our students the option to learn a highly skilled trade that will set them up with high-paying jobs that are critical to our state. I thank Senator Jack Reed and the Rhode Island Congressional delegation, Tim Fox of SEDEDIA and William Barber of Electric Boat for their continued support in making the Precision Machine Program a reality. I also have to thank the students in attendance today and wish them well in their future careers as machinists,” said Senator Raptakis (D-Dist. 33, Coventry, West Greenwich).
In particular, after speaking with local machining businesses, Senator Raptakis is proposing a grant program that will compensate local machining shops that take the time, money and resources to educate and train high school technical school students in the machining trade. This compensation would take the form of the state paying for the salaries of the new workers for an agreed upon time of employment in exchange for learning the machining craft. Currently, local businesses bear all of the costs of educating the students.
“Machinists keep our society running and without them, countless businesses would grind to a halt. And since we know that there is significant growing concern about a lack of new trades workers filling the roles of retiring employees, we need to invest in the new generation of these workers. The problem arises when our local small businesses absorb all of the costs of training these new workers, only for the workers to immediately leave for bigger companies and conglomerates. If we want to ensure that our state has the necessary trades workers that we need, that means we also need to support the local small businesses that do this vital work,” said Senator Raptakis.
Senator Raptakis, who will be introducing legislation in January when the new legislative session begins, envisions a program similar to the RI Promise scholarship program, where a new generation of machinists learn the necessary skills necessary while also alleviating the burden that Rhode Island’s local machining shops experience when they are confronted with the time and costs associated with training new and future workers. He is proposing a program where the state would pay the students for the time they are trained in local businesses, rather than the local machining shops, in return for a guaranteed work period, one or two years of employment, before the students have the opportunity to take their new skills to another business or company.
“The machining industry is really facing a silver tsunami and we are at risk of losing the knowledge and skills necessary to continue keeping our state going in the very necessary machining field. The average age of the industry’s workers is 60 years old, so the need for younger machinists is drastic. Unfortunately, after partnering with local high schools to teach students interested in the machining field, small businesses take on all of the costs associated with this educational and training period, only for the new workers to leave the job immediately for larger corporations. There is a distinct need to train future workers, but the current system is sadly unsustainable for our small businesses. I look forward to working with Rhode Island’s local machining shops and Lori Ferguson of the Career Technical Center to ensure that Rhode Island has the future trades workers that our state and residents require,” concluded Senator Raptakis.
Senator Raptakis will take the next few months to research how such a program would be feasible before introducing his bill in January.
For more information, contact:
Andrew Caruolo, Publicist
State House Room 20
Providence, RI 02903
(401)222-6124
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