NSAI Workforce Recruitment & Training Programs

NSAI Partners with the Maine CareerCenter system for a variety of services from recruitment and other training programs to employee retention and safety training assistance for details visit: www.mainecareercenter.com

NSAI also Partners with Maine Job Bank Central

List your current job openings viewed by a state an national audience of job seekers
Conduct a computerized match that alerts registered job seekers with the requisite skills in your listing about your opening

Workforce Needs Assessment & Response

NSAI Liaisons have been trained to assist you in identifying workforce related needs and issues. NSAI Liaisons will assess your company's needs and package a service response that connects you to workforce and non-workforce related assistance. The intent of the assessment is to provide an holistic response to your companies needs. NSAI recognizes that certain business events trigger more than just workforce related needs:

Companies undergoing Process Improvements, Organizational Changes, Technology Changes new product development and the like may be linked to a variety of resources from each of the NSAI pillar partnerships please contact your NSAI liaison for this service.

NSAI Business Training Initiative (BTI)

Eligibility - Applicants Must:
- Fall within the NSAI targeted industry cluster (Boat Building, Marine Trades, & Composite Manufacturing of Durable Goods).
- Provide a financial or in-kind match
- Provide competitive wages to employee/trainees and a wage raise to incumbent trainees
- Provide training that will result in attainment of skills necessary to advancement of the company and that will result in trainee:
  - Earning an industry recognized credential (Certificate, Degree, Diploma, License, etc.), and
  - Entering an upwardly mobile career ladder, OR
  - Becoming a registered apprentice.
Application Download the Printable BTI Application Form
Process (Note all BTI applicants must also include a completed Vendor Form)
- BTI Application is reviewed for eligibility and appropriateness
- Business Applicant will then receive either
  - A Training Authorization allowing a training institution to bill NSAI directly OR
  - A Formal Training Contract that must be signed and returned prior to approval
- A Training Authorization does not require the BTI recipient to pay for the training up front and is used in an instance where NSAI has a formal agreement with the specific training provider.
- A Formal Training Contract requires the BTI recipient to pay up front and seek reimbursement upon successful completion of the training program. Reimbursement takes between 15-30 days once an invoice has been received.
- All applicants are required to complete a Vendor Form for which data must be on file with MDOL prior to approval of reimbursements.
- All employee trainees who are recipients of NSAI funded training or assistance must complete an NSAI participant form

NSAI New Hire On-the-Job Training (OJT)

Purpose: Provides assistance to NSAI cluster companies to offer On-the-Job training to new employees. OJT occurs on the shop floor, during regularly scheduled employee work time and is specific to enabling new employees to learn existing or new: processes, technologies, machine or equipment operations, and other skills or functions of the position that can only be imparted on the job.
Eligibility: Applicants Must:
- Be applying for assistance specific to the training of net new hires
- Understand that OJT is a hire first program that requires you to offer all the requisite employee benefits you offer to your other employees
- Fall within the NSAI targeted industry cluster (Boat Building, Marine Trades, & Composite Manufacturing of Durable Goods).
- Provide a 50% wage/cost match
- Provide competitive wages
  - Provide training that will result in attainment of specific kills outlined in the OJT training plan
- All employee trainees who are recipients of NSAI funded training or assistance must complete an NSAI participant form
Process: To apply you must:
- Meet with an NSAI liaison or CareerCenter rep who will work with you to develop an appropriate OJT program for your new hires. You will be able to submit a request for reimbursement of up to 50% of an employee's hourly wage up to the number of hours designated in the contract. You may submit for reimbursement once monthly or at the end of the trainee OJT timeframe.

NSAI Educational Award Program

Was designed to encourage young Mainers to consider careers in Maine’s NSAI industry cluster and to provide this future workforce with requisite industry skills

Purpose: To provide assistance in the form of financial awards to individuals interested in obtaining credentials required to work at businesses within the NSAI cluster. Awards will be paid directly to the educational institution at which the student has unpaid tuition, book or fee balances.
Eligibility: Applicants Must:
- Be a qualified instructor at a Maine educational institution OR
- Be a permanent Maine resident, who is:
  - A Maine High School Senior planning to enter an NSAI endorsed program or course
  - A Recent High School Graduate planning to enter an NSAI endorsed program or course and who intends to live and work in Maine and who will seek employment at a company within the NSAI industry cluster once s/he earns the credential
  - A worker who is recently dislocated from a Maine company through no fault of his/her own and who intends enter an NSAI endorsed program or course in order to gains skills that will result in attainment of a job within the NSAI industry cluster or that will result in self-employment that will advance Maine’s NSAI industry cluster
- Be in need of financial assistance (Note: the NSAI award can be applied prior costs prior to Pell)
- Have applied and been awarded prior to entry into an NSAI endorsed program or course (Note: students who have already been actively engaged in a course of study will be deemed ineligible).
Application: Download Printable EA application form
Process: To apply you must:
- Submit a fully completed application form and attach all requested documentation
- Provide two letters of recommendation
  - One from a former educational institution that can vouch for your ability to succeed
  - One from a company within the NSAI industry cluster that will either provide you with a letter of intent to hire upon completion of your program and/or will endorse the program of study you are entering as in demand by the NSAI industry cluster
Successful Award Recipients, must:
- Complete an NSAI participant form
- Agree to a follow-up questionnaire upon completion of their chosen course of study
- Be intent upon working for a Maine company within the NSAI industry cluster upon earning a credential

NSAI Apprenticeship Program

Apprenticeship is a formal, nationally recognized program that requires the apprentice to learn the full spectrum of skills (both on the job and via formal related instruction) that will result in certification and recognition as a skilled journeyperson in the particular trade s/he is pursuing.

MMTA and MCA have endorsed the following specific apprenticeship programs:

Marine Tradesperson
Boatbuilder, Wood
Marine Certified Composite Technician
Marine Electrician
Marine Engine Service Technician
Marine Joiner
Industrial Composite Technician

However, there are over 1000 training programs to which apprenticeship can be applied and that will also be supported financially by NSAI if they are sponsored by a company within the NSAI cluster. For more specifics on the value of Apprenticeship to the employer/sponsor and or to the apprentice, please visit the Maine Apprenticeship Website: XXXX or contact your NSAI Liaison or you local CareerCenter connect to www.mainecareercenter.com

Sponsor Eligibility: Employer Sponsors must:

Be a company that falls within the NSAI industry cluster
Be willing to provide employee apprentices with opportunity to learn the full range of skill standards outlined in the particular trade program being sponsored
Assure that registered apprentices are full-time, regular employees of the company
Provide an incremental wage scale to apprentices in commensurate with skill and credential attainment of the apprentice trainee

Apprentice Trainees Must:

Work to learn all the skill standards outlined in the particular trade program
Attend and successfully complete all required related instruction courses in the timeframes allotted
Complete the NSAI participant form

Financial Assistance for Related Instruction (Subject to change as the NSAI grant matures)

First Year NSAI Apprentices will be eligible to receive 100% of the cost of Tuition, Books and Fees for Required Related Instruction Courses
Second Year NSAI Apprentices will be eligible to receive 75% of the cost of Tuition for Required Related Instruction
Third+ year NSAI apprentices will be eligible to receive 50% of the cost of Tuition for Required Related Instruction

Apprentices: Please review LiLA program which offers additional incentives and capacity to pay for apprenticeship or other formal course work.

Required Related Instruction Courses for NSAI apprenticeship programs are provided by:

The Maine Community College System
The Landing School
The Eastport Boat School
The ATC Center in Brunswick
And Others

To become an NSAI Apprenticeship Sponsor or Apprentice - contact your NSAI Liaison or CareerCenter Representative www.mainecareercenter.com

NSAI Pre-Apprenticehip Program

Pre Apprenticeship is designed to provide Maine students with a career pathway to a job and college.

Pre-Apprentices:

Are typically High School juniors or seniors with an interest in learning a particular technical trade career
Work part-time for an employer (weekends/summers) that falls within the trade sector of interest
Are hired as part time employees of the company/sponsor and are expected to actively engage in learning all of the skill standards outlined in the regular apprenticeship program
May attend early college courses as part of their program, but
Must maintain passing grades in their High School Courses
May be encouraged to take specific courses necessary to success in the trade career they are pursuing
May become fully registered apprentices upon graduation OR
May go on to technical or trade programs offered by the Maine Community College System or other Maine colleges

Registration as a Pre-Apprentice requires that:

S/He be hired part time by the employer/sponsor
Get the endorsement of his/her school principal as part of the registration process
Get the endorsement of his/her parent as part of the registration process if s/he is under the age of 18
S/He be at least 16 years of age or older
S/He be at least 16 years of age or older

For more information on Pre-Apprenticeship in NSAI occupations please contact your NSAI Liaison or local CareerCenter representative www.mainecareercenter.com