Apply: NWTC seeks more instructors as student body grows

Jul 29, 2023

Buffalo, N.Y. (WBEN) - The Northland Workforce Training Center in Buffalo is preparing to take on their largest student body to date for the upcoming semester and, as a result, are looking to hire more instructors.

"We have an incoming student body of around 160 students and returning student body of around 140 students, and we need more instructors. We need individuals who are professionals at electrical, welding, CNC machining, and we need them to transfer their knowledge, their skills on to the next generation." says Stephen Tucker, President and CEO of Northland Workforce Training Center.

Operating since 2018, the training center has enrolled over 1,000 students. The goal of the center is to help fill thousands of jobs in the advanced manufacturing and energy sectors.

"The mission of Northern Workforce Training Center is to train and prepare local residents for careers in advanced manufacturing and clean energy. As a region, we are projecting to need to fill around 20,000 job openings, mainly due to retirements. Both of those industry sectors have an aging workforce and a non existent pipeline. The Northland Workforce Training Center was created to fill that void."

The student class sizes are going to be kept the same, according to Tucker, maxed out at 20 students per class. However, they are going to increase the number of "cohorts" so they can accommodate more students.

"We have around six electrical cohorts that will be operating this fall, four welding cohorts this fall, as well as two CNC machining cohorts this fall, so each cohort needs its own instructor."

Tucker expands on what kind of instructors the center is searching for. "Specifically we're looking for three individuals to train for our electrical program residential, commercial as well as industrial. We're looking for CNC operator instructors as well. CNC is computer numerically controlled machining, one of the fastest growing occupations here in Western New York, as well as welding instructors and instructional assistants."

Tucker emphasizes the importance of students taking these classes and what it means for Buffalo's future workforce, as there are currently 3,000 jobs that need to be filled right now in the area in these particular fields.

"These are great job openings that pay family-sustainable wages, the average salary in advanced manufacturing and clean energy for production workers is around $50,000 a year."

In addition, Tucker highlights the training center's partnerships with Alfred State College and SUNY Erie, which have been essential to getting Buffalo students learning innovative and evolving programs.

"I'm proud of all of our programs. We have a mechatronics program, which is facilitated by SUNY Erie. Individuals graduating from that program can go on to great companies that pay great wages. We also have CNC machining taught by Alfred State College, welding, as well as electrical. A lot of people don't know that Alfred State College consistently ranks in the top two or three colleges of technology in the country, according to US News and World Report, to have them here and East Buffalo is literally transforming for this community."

On Thursday, August 3, from 4-7 p.m., join Alfred State and the Northland Workforce Training Center for a Job Fair, located at 683 Northland Avenue.See here for more details.