WARWICK — Donnie Daniel of Warwick wasn’t sure what his next career move should be earlier this year after he lost his job in the heating/air conditioning industry.
He had been on unemployment for a couple of months when one of the job counselors at the state’s netWORKri career center in West Warwick told him about a new shipbuilding training program being offered at the New England Institute of Technology.
A little skeptical at first, and worried about how much it might cost him, Daniel, 46, said he decided to investigate and found “the opportunity of a lifetime.”
The eight-week training program that he completed in May was provided at no cost, he said, and he soon starts a new job and new career at General Dynamics Electric Boat.
“I had never done [welding] before,” he said. “It bumped my skill set up to a whole new level.”
Daniel’s story was applauded by federal, state and local officials Monday as they gathered at New England Tech’s Warwick Post Road campus to celebrate the success of the shipbuilding and manufacturing program it launched last fall.
The program gives students intensive training in either welding or computer-controlled manufacturing techniques that are sometimes called precision manufacturing.
Since the first session started late last year, about 60 students have completed the program, which is called the Shipbuilding/Marine and Advanced Manufacturing Institute (SAMI).
Of those 60, about 90 percent have found jobs — many with General Dynamics Electric Boat, which recently won a $17.6-billion contract with the Navy to build 10 more Virginia-class attack submarines.
The program, which is funded in part by federal and state grants, is free to Rhode Islanders who are unemployed, over the age of 18, and who pass an initial screening process to see if they have a knack for the work.
U.S. Senators Jack Reed and Sheldon Whitehouse and Representatives James Langevin and David Cicilline praised New England Tech for listening to the needs of manufacturers.
Reed noted that the SAMI program is training people “not for jobs that might exist, but for jobs that are here today and will be here tomorrow.”
There is enough funding for the program to run at least another year, according to officials at New England Tech, and the institute might pursue more grant options.
The program is currently being funded by about $2.5 million from the U.S. Department of Labor, approximately $440,000 from the Governor’s Workforce Board Rhode Island and $50,000 from the Rhode Island Foundation, officials said.
They said that the program was largely precipitated by a conversation in which officials at Electric Boat told the school that they have jobs, but can’t find people with enough skills to fill even the entry-level positions in manufacturing.
Warwick Mayor Scott Avedisian said the program is a good example of a jobs program matching the needs of industry.
He also noted that New England Tech is using one of its buildings on Post Road for the shipbuilding and manufacturing course — a building that had been partially empty after the school began relocating to East Greenwich a couple of years ago.
“Now it’s being used to help create jobs,” he said.
Reed and other members of the state’s congressional delegation said they hope to see more training and educational programs that are a direct response to the job market.
Linda Dionne, a spokesperson for New England Tech, said that the school has enough money to run the program through the fall of next year, but will likely pursue other funding sources that would allow it to continue beyond then.
“This is the fabric of Rhode Island,” said U.S. Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.) about Block Island. “I often tell people to come to the island. It’s a wonderful place to live and visit. I think it’s one of the loveliest places in the country.”
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