Training program introduced by MACNY along with OCC and CCC in Fulton helps area women enter manufacturing through pre-apprenticeship
By Mary Beth Roach
“We can do it.”
It was the tagline associated with the Rosie the Riveter campaign during World War II, encouraging women to enter the workforce, especially in the manufacturing industry, to support America’s efforts in World War II.
Eighty years later, the iconic Rosie is still providing inspiration.
Real Life Rosies is a training program introduced by MACNY — the Manufacturers Association of Central New York — along with Onondaga Community College, in Syracuse and Cayuga Community College in Fulton, which is helping area women enter manufacturing through pre-apprenticeship.
Women have long been under-represented in this field; they make up about half of the population, but less than 30% are in the workforce.
The program was started at a time when manufacturing started reshoring into the United States and companies were losing a lot of their trained workforce to retirement, according to Colleen Blagg, manager of corporate services and workforce development with MACNY.
The 12-week, 72-hour free program is one of the few advanced manufacturing direct-entry programs in the state. It is designed to prepare individuals to enter a registered apprenticeship when they graduate and it is certified by the NYS Department of Labor, Blagg said.
She explained that it is half technical skills and half soft skills, including resume writing, interviewing, networking and confidence-building.
MACNY provides transportation and childcare assistance, work attire and technology — “anything to help the individual be successful while they’re in the program and then after the program, to be successful in finding employment,” Blagg said,
Each participant is guaranteed up to six interviews with companies that offer registered apprenticeships.
Paige Perl, Jess Miller and Jillian Prather, all Oswego County residents, are three “Real Life Rosies.”
Both Perl and Miller learned of the program through the Oswego County Workforce New York Career Center in Fulton. They completed the training program at Cayuga Community College’s Fulton campus and have been with Belden Inc., located in Syracuse, for five months. Belden provides cable, connectivity and networking products used by cable systems, satellite networks and wireless businesses.
Perl, of Fulton, is the company’s first female automation technician.
She had always been interested in auto mechanics, crediting her grandfather with teaching her “everything I needed to know about my own car.”
“I wanted to expand on that and see where I could go,” she added.
She said that the Real Life Rosies “boosted my confidence in myself, furthering my career wishes.”
“I learned quite a bit. And then when I did my tour here, I saw the machines and that just excited me more. The program definitely got me set in a lot of ways for this position,” she said.
She’s already working on expanding that career path, having recently joined the apprenticeship for electromechnical technician.
Miller, of Oswego, is working as a fiber extrusion machine operator, which involves making fiber optic cable, mini flex line, running the lines, basic troubleshooting and end-of-line testing. Like Perl, she sees the opportunity for growth and is interested in pursuing an apprenticeship program, assessing what is available and what she might be qualified for.
The program through Onondaga Community College is a different model, Blagg explained, with MACNY reaching out to companies and having them send their entry-level employees through the program to see if they would be interested in a registered apprenticeship after they finished.
Prather, of Mexico, came through the Onondaga program. She had been waitressing for 15 years, but said she didn’t want that to define her. A friend of hers was already working at Belden and had suggested that it would be a good fit for her. She has been with Belden three years and was working for the company when she learned of the Real Life Rosies.
“I think the Rosie program gives everybody a foot up. It gives you a sense of confidence,” she said.
Kathy Millett, the human resources manager at Belden, is a strong advocate of women in the manufacturing industry, in general, and of the Rosie program specifically.
When MACNY first approached her about the program, she invited them to Belden to do an information fair. Perl, Miller and Prather credit her for bringing them on board at Belden.
While she hopes that these three women continue their careers at the company, Millett said, should they opt to move onto another employer, “I hope whatever they’ve learned here goes with them and they are successful.”
In harnessing that “can-do spirit,” Miller said that she has recommended Rosie to a few of her friends.
“If you have a good head on you and you’re adaptable, this is something you’ll be able to pick up,” she said.
