Regional Sector Partnership leaders, manufacturers and education partners told the Commerce Committee that Connecticut needs to expand hands‑on career pathways from high school through apprenticeship to keep workers in the state’s manufacturing industry.

Nut graf: Speakers from the Eastern Advanced Manufacturing Alliance, Manufacture CT and small makers said many employers seek high‑school‑level hires and that well‑designed work‑based learning, internships and apprenticeship pipelines are the most effective ways to convert students into full‑time manufacturing employees.

Tony Benoit, director of the Eastern Advanced Manufacturing Alliance Regional Sector Partnership (EMRSP), said employers in Eastern Connecticut identified the next generation of manufacturing workers as their number‑one strategic priority. Benoit described the Youth Manufacturing Pipeline Initiative (YMPI), which enrolls seniors in partner high schools in work‑based learning and creates direct hiring pathways for students who want to enter manufacturing upon graduation.

Benoit and other witnesses urged the legislature to back bills that expand apprenticeship access and pre‑apprenticeship funding (SB 593 and SB 20 were cited as examples in testimony) and to reconsider state apprenticeship ratios that limit how many apprentices a journey worker can supervise.

Kate Houlihan of Manufacture CT and other industry speakers told lawmakers that programs linking comprehensive high schools, tech schools and community colleges to employers produce hires and retention. Employers and association leaders reported success with paid internships and technical high‑school placements: Southington Tool, PTA Corporation and other firms described hiring students they had evaluated through paid work‑based learning and then moving them into apprenticeships.

Lawmakers and witnesses discussed ways to speed collaboration between schools and employers, including templates for career‑focused high‑school plans, incentives for work‑based learning, and data collection to measure outcomes. EMRSP asked the committee to support bills allowing candidate teachers with industry experience to receive credit toward certification — a move that would increase the pool of instructors with manufacturing backgrounds.

Ending: Committee members asked for follow‑up materials about existing pilot programs, metrics of student‑to‑job conversion rates, and the apprenticeship ratio language in the bills under consideration.