Peter Stasiowski was thanked by students Jill Scussel and Jac Lin, who attended the Hugh O'Brian Youth Leadership Conference through Interprint's donation.

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — Megan Holm, a junior at Taconic High, knows exactly what she wants to do after graduation.

 

She wants to attend the University of Wisconsin at Stout's manufacturing engineering program and become an engineer.

 

And that starts with getting the best foundation in manufacturing right at Taconic High School.

 

Holm will be one of the beneficiaries of a new partnership between the school and Interprint Inc. After college, she might even be able to return to a job in her hometown.

 

"The new partnership with Interprint is going to be great for our school. It is going to give us training and outlets that we wouldn't get anywhere else. We're going to get internships and be able to get jobs easier," Holm said.

 

"Once we build a rapport with Interprint, it will help our peers get out in the workforce and see what the real jobs are like in manufacturing."

 

Interprint's Director of Communications Peter Stasiowski said the company will purchase equipment each year for the school's manufacturing, information technology and graphic arts as well as provide internships and mentoring programs. The company also paid for two students to attend the Hugh O'Brian Youth Leadership Conference. 

 

"It is a two-way street. Interprint benefits because we have a steady steam of well-qualified, trained, workforce ready employees. And Taconic benefits from Interprint in both financial and human capital support in form of internship and mentorship," Stasiowski said.

 

This year, Interprint bought three new digital readout machines to replace ones dating back to the 1970s. It is also bringing on an intern in the coming months and will be sending employees to the school to help teach.

 

"This partnership involved much more than monetary contributions," said Taconic manufacturing teacher Larry Michalenko said. "I know the students are better prepared for work as a result of Interprint's partnership."

 

The new relationship builds on the citywide effort to boost applied materials and high-tech manufacturing. Area businesses have long reported that there was a lack of workers trained in the skills needed. 

 

"It is a struggle that is getting more and more difficult by the day," Stasiowski said. "We are constantly competing with our friendly, neighborly, brethren in the manufacturing world for those employees so any way we can increase our odds of having our name recognition with groups of students like at Taconic, we're going to jump on that."

 

According to Berkshire Community College President Ellen Kennedy, county leaders in 2006 opted to switch gears and followed former Interprint CEO William Hines Sr.'s advice when he said, "if we can't find them, we have to grow them."

 

Kennedy said the college launched a partnership in 2008 with Taconic to provide retraining for more than 20 workers, including some working at Interprint. In 2013, the college teamed up on a grant to bring Taconic two new computer numerical control machines, a robot arm, material storage and assembly pallet, conveyor belt and a 3D printer. About a quarter of a million was put into the system.

 

"There is so much more to come in 2015 and beyond," Kennedy said. 

 

Superintendent Jason McCandless is thankful for the company's support.

Last year, the state Housing and Economic Development Department said more than 100,000 manufacturing jobs will be opening in the next decade. Taconic manufacturing students now not only have a seamless flow to college but now to local businesses. 

 

"The way this fits into the grand scheme of things here in Pittsfield and Berkshire County is that it is going to give Taconic the ability to have the programming that is specifically designed to help our small and medium-sized applied materials companies and higher-tech companies," said Mayor Daniel Bianchi.

 

The next step is the completion of the Berkshire Innovation Center, which is expected to break ground in the spring. The center will serve as a research and development site for more than a dozen businesses. The hope is the $9.75 million building and equipment will serve as a spring board for companies to expand and grow in the Berkshires. 

 

"We, right now, are facing unbelievable opportunities with what's happening with the innovation center," said William Mulholland, director of economic development at Berkshire Community College. 

 

The mayor said the proposed new Taconic High School will build on that effort to create a workforce for smaller businesses.

 

"We have to start earlier," Bianchi said. "We have to expose them to things like robotics, high technology, and just an array of 21st century skills and we need to do it at an earlier age. We have to create a system where it is competitive to get into a vocational program."

 

Holm got a chance to explore Interprint, which manufactures high-end laminates, on a recent trip to see firsthand how what she is learning in the classroom translates to jobs in the city of Pittsfield.

 

"Their facility is immaculate. It is beautiful. It is clean. It is precision machining and they create beautiful products," Holm said.