Naugatuck Valley Community College hosted the Smaller Manufacturers Association monthly meeting on Monday, March 16 in the Technology Hall Dining Room. The meeting focused on the SMA Education Committee which featured manufacturing workforce development.

Among the speakers was Hannah Lenoce, a graduate of NVCC’s Advanced Manufacturing Technology Certificate Program, who is now an intern with Marion Manufacturing, where she is working toward a tool and die apprenticeship. “I’m learning even more on the job, but the courses that I attended at NVCC had helped me develop the skills I now use every day,” she said. Lenoce’s success story was highlighted along with that of Doug Ryhardt, another NVCC graduate who also earned employment with an SMA-member company.

The program also featured a discussion on developing the manufacturing workforce among Dr. Nivea Torres, Superintendent of Connecticut Technical High Schools; David Boiano, Chairman of NVCC’s Manufacturing Council and Adjunct Manufacturing Professor; Michael Retano, Manufacturing Technology Teacher at Waterbury Career Academy; and Vinnie Valente of the Connecticut Department of Labor’s Office of Apprenticeship.

In addition, the SMA honored NVCC students Alex Logan and Rob Catuccio with Student of the Month awards and Ryan Jacquemin, a senior manufacturing student at Oliver Wolcott Technical High School, with the 2014 Mastercam Innovator of the Year Award.