EAGLE TIMES REPORT: Structal Bridge

Saturday January 23,2010


Structal to hire 40 from local college

By ANGEL ROY
Staff Writer

CLAREMONT ‹ When Structal Bridges faced hiring challenges it turned to where many local companies looking for skilled workers go - River Valley Community College.
Now, with a partnership in place to train to the company¹s needs, the River Road bridge giant is preparing to hire 40 welders and fitters over a 12-month period.
The idea for the partnership began when Tony Levesque, Structal Bridges project manager, discussed the challenges with Jim Britton, RVCC director of continuing education & business training.
"We basically had trouble finding skilled help in the area with bridge welding and fitting experience," Levesque said, adding that "the company had sought out potential employees from other bridge shops in Connecticut and beyond. We were also doing some training of other tradespeople locally with good building trades experience," he said. "We basically invested the time to train them for bridge fabrication." Britton was able to link Levesque with the River Valley Workforce Institute, formerly Vermont HITEC, to set recruitment plans in motion.
RVWI also worked with RVCC on the Jan. 16 recruitment of 15 new hires for Hypertherm, which drew 200 applicants.
"We feel comfortable with their model of finding and screening candidates," Levesque said.
New hires will be trained through the Skills Through Apprenticeship Retraining program, an eight-week accelerated program funded through a $1.8 million grant from the state Department of Resources and Economic Development New Hampshire Work Opportunity Council. The funds were awarded to the department from the U.S. Department of Labor.
Selected candidates will earn $12 an hour during the program, with successful graduates starting at $14 an hour with benefits and potential for bonuses. Upon completion of the program new hires will have earned 27 credits from RVCC to apply toward an associate's degree and a U.S.
Department of Labor certificate of apprenticeship as a welder-fitter.
Levesque said the company was also attracted to the college training model because of its educational benefits for employees.
"They are starting as full-time employees at Structal Bridges and in addition are full-time students at RVCC," Levesque said.
The college, Britton said, is working to format a curriculum for the program and how to fit it into its existing programs as it does not currently offer a credited welding program.
Britton said the college is likely to look at existing programs and course outlines from two colleges in the Community College System of New Hampshire and work with the technical center in Newport, which offers adult education in welding.
Levesque said the company is looking for an educator to instruct four classes of 10 candidates and wants to kick off the first within the next two to three months.
"Basically they have a criteria they will need to reach," Levesque said of new hires. "If they can do that, if they can be a success, then we can take on more than 40 , I hope that it is." Structal Bridges has an estimated 80 employees, a number that Levesque hopes will increase to 150-200 over the next few years.
"We are really looking to attract good candidates that will be here for the long haul," Levesque said.
Along with growing its staff, the company has big plans for its facility.
The company is slated to move its operations to the part of its building formerly occupied by Sullivan Paletek so expansions and improvements can begin at the plant.
"We plan to invest $10 million to $12 million in this facility," Levesque said. "It will increase capacity a fair amount." Over the past two years Structal Bridges, has spent $3.5 million on capital improvement upgrades, training employees and replacing all tools.
"The plant," Levesque said, "is shaping up to be the United States headquarters of the company."
The company purchased the assets of its predecessor, Eastern Bridge, in 2007; Canam, a Canada-based company that owns Structal Bridges, purchased the 177,000-square-foot building Nov. 6.
Sullivan County Registry of Deeds shows a $61,500 property transfer tax which denotes a purchase price of $4.1 million from Grissom & River LLC of Antrim, N.H.
"We are real happy with being in Claremont," Levesque said.
Britton said RVCC hopes to have application information on its Web site next week.