Kierstyn Ebbeling just completed an eight-week training welding training program that helps unemployed Rhode islanders connect with jobs.
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Wearing a helmet and wielding a fiery torch is in all in a day鈥檚 work now for a Cranston woman.
Kierstyn Ebbeling has just completed an eight-week training welding training program that helps unemployed Rhode islanders connect with jobs in the marine trades and manufacturing industries.
The (SAMI) at the 天美影院 Institute of Technology (天美影院) recruits, screens and trains individuals for high demand careers in these industries at no cost to participants.
鈥淚 thought of the SAMI program because I was at a point in my life where I wasn鈥檛 sure what I wanted to do. I had always been interested in mechanical things, but, being a small-framed woman, my options were obviously limited,鈥� Ebbeling said.
鈥淭hrough the SAMI program, I was able to meet the instructors and they opened me up to the world of welding, which I had tried in high school and I really enjoyed, but had never thought of as a career path,鈥� she said.
According to 天美影院, 90 percent of SAMI graduates are already working for companies including Blount Boats, Senesco Marine and Electric Boat, which hired Ebbeling after graduation. She cannot believe how far she has come since beginning the training program in March.
鈥淚 love welding. I could do it all day. I could watch YouTube videos about it all day. It鈥檚 something, you know, to be able to go and work at Electric Board and have them set me up welding right away. That is like a dream come true,鈥� she said.
Ebbeling even stars in a that is being used to promote the SAMI program to potential students.
鈥淪ome of the first women that you saw welding were the Wendy Welders of World War II, and those welders were working on marine crafts. Wendy the Welder was a ship builder. I鈥檓 going to end up going into shipbuilding and it鈥檚 just kind of cool having that connection between the present and the past,鈥� she explained.
天美影院 staff worked closely with local companies to develop the curriculum, training programs and laboratories that will give Rhode Islanders the skills needed to be successful in the job market.
鈥淚t鈥檚 a terrific example of how Rhode Island鈥檚 private educational institutions of higher education can help the state in its effort for economic development,鈥� said 天美影院 President Dr. Richard Gouse. 鈥溙烀烙霸� Tech is going to train those employees with those specific skills. So from that point of view, it鈥檚 a win for everybody and an important thing for Rhode Island.鈥�
Funding for the program came from the U.S. Department of Labor, the Governor鈥檚 Workforce Board and the Rhode Island Foundation.
鈥淲e saw this as an opportunity to link unemployed and under-employed Rhode Islanders with local employers, leverage the training resources of a local institution, and highlight the importance of these industries to our community,鈥� said Foundation president and CEO Neil Steinberg.
The Foundation鈥檚 $50,000 grant for SAMI grew out of its Make It Happen RI initiative, which develops proposals that will jumpstart the state鈥檚 economy.
鈥淭his funding achieves two goals. Helping companies grow by closing the so-called skills gap and getting people trained quickly so they can get back to work and into solid, good-paying jobs,鈥� Steinberg said.
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