The REMADE Institute got a federal financial boost to develop online e-scrap workforce training in multiple languages, targeting roles that don’t require four-year college degrees.
The $380,000 grant came from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Advanced Materials and Manufacturing Technologies Office. Partners on the circular economy workforce training project include the Rochester Institute of Technology, the Recycled Materials Association and the Remanufacturing Industries Council.
Founded in 2017 in part by the U.S. DOE, REMADE is a public-private partnership focused on supporting and developing technologies that will accelerate the U.S.’s transition to a more circular economy.
The end result of this project will be training in English and Spanish for a variety of roles, including shop-floor workers and repair, test and diagnostic technicians.
“The specific training developed as part of this project would teach not only entry-level shop-floor workers, but would also provide progressive training to allow workers to move up the ladder into repair, test and diagnostic technician jobs,” according to a press release.
Mike Thurston, technical director at the Rochester Institute of Technology’s Golisano Institute for Sustainability, noted in the press release that “access to skilled operators and experienced technicians is a challenge all over in manufacturing,” and the program is “designed to help bridge that labor gap.”
As the U.S. government has lately devoted more attention and resources to developing domestic e-scrap recycling, ReMA President Robin Wiener said it’s vital to “proactively work to build the talent pool who will be necessary to reintroduce those materials back into the manufacturing supply chain.”
