Courtney, Perez Celebrate the Success of Eastern CT’s Manufacturing Pipeline Initiative 10 Years After Supporting the Program’s Launch

NORWICH, CT - Today, Congressman Joe Courtney (CT-02), Ranking Member of the House Seapower and Projection Forces Subcommittee and a senior Member of the House Education and Workforce Committee, and Tom Perez, former U.S. Secretary of Labor, celebrated the success of eastern Connecticut's Manufacturing Pipeline Initiative (MPI) ten years after the program launched with their support.

"In 2015, when then-Secretary of Labor Perez joined me at Electric Boat for a roundtable discussion with our region's manufacturing leaders, he called for a nationwide effort to develop a 'skills infrastructure,'" Courtney said. "Through federal support, EWIB's Manufacturing Pipeline Initiative has become the nation's role model for revitalizing the skilled trades to meet the needs of local employers and create high-quality career opportunities for young people and adult jobseekers. In 2026, the program continues to expand and is powering record hiring at the Groton shipyard and supporting small business manufactures across our region. With the historic demand signal for submarine construction from the recently awarded $76.6 billion Navy contracts, we now need to double down on the Manufacturing Pipeline Initiative's success for decades to come."

"I had the privilege of standing side by side with Congressman Courtney and other business and community leaders 10 years ago when the Manufacturing Pipeline Initiative was launched," Perez said. "In the past decade, over 6,400 program trainees have been placed into jobs at over 670 small, medium, and large businesses. These hard working men and women have punched their ticket to the middle class. Congressman Courtney has worked tirelessly to ensure that these critical investments continue. This program is a poster child for how workforce boards are supposed to operate in terms of reaching out to local employers and creating a curriculum that makes untrained individuals job-ready in an accelerated time frame."

In 2015, then-Secretary Perez visited Electric Boat in Groton, CT at the invitation of Congressman Courtney. During a roundtable with leaders in eastern Connecticut's manufacturing industry, Secretary Perez noted a nationwide need to build out a "skills infrastructure" to help our nation's economy grow and succeed. Following Secretary Perez's visit, the Eastern Connecticut Workforce Investment Board received a $6 million grant award from the Department of Labor, which helped launch the Manufacturing Pipeline Initiative.

The Manufacturing Pipeline Initiative is 48% federally funded, 51% state funded, and 1% philanthropically funded, according to EWIB.

Since it launched in 2016, the Manufacturing Pipeline Initiative has placed over 6,400 trainees into jobs at over 670 employers, generated $549 million in total economic impact, and driven 33% faster employment growth in eastern Connecticut vs. the rest of the state, according to EWIB.

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