Made in Connecticut: Local Company Highlighted

Twenty years ago, manufacturing employed more than 300,000 workers in this state–now we’re down to barely half of that. The Bureau of Labor Statistics states this is a result of mounting competition from overseas markets, rapidly changing technologies, lack of skilled workers, the rising cost of raw materials and increased cost of energy.

As a member of the General Assembly’s Manufacturing Caucus this trend grabbed my attention.

At prior meetings with manufacturers the caucus learned of this scarcity of workers trained to run advanced machines. It was acknowledged that a part of the problem in providing this training is the lack of access to sophisticated technology.

This advanced type of technology is used in businesses around our state including in Plainville, where Hygrade Precision Technologies is based. This company was recently featured as the Made in Connecticut Manufacturer of the week.

Hygrade Precision Technologies (www.hygrade.com) is a single source metal finisher for advanced technology industries including aerospace, automotive, commercial, industrial and medical markets. They have been in Plainville for more than 50 years.

They have a highly-skilled staff of 30 that provide metal finishing solutions including flat grinding and lapping, cylindrical grinding, CNC multi-axis machining, and testing and inspection services. This is the type of sophisticated work that employers are struggling to find workers for.

There is a resource in the greater Hartford area that can help.

The Connecticut Center for Advanced Technology, Inc. (CCAT) helps private and public entities apply innovative tools and practices to increase efficiencies, improve workforce development and boost competitiveness. CCAT officials are partnering with state high schools (technical and comprehensive) as well as community colleges to allow them to use their resources to help train the next generation of skilled manufacturing workers.

This partnership between industry, academia and government has created a new collaborative framework. Though we may never employ hundreds of thousands of manufacturing workers again, we certainly can try to bridge our schools with available programs to improve workforce development.

It would be great if every week there were more “Made in Connecticut Manufacturers” to showcase.
To find out more about The Made in CT Program visit www.made-in-ct.com. The goal of the program is to showcase the products made in the Nutmeg State and highlight the contributions of the manufacturing community to the public.