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State development secretary sees Malden at work
Matt Byrne
At left Tom Mitchell, Vice President of Operations
at Paradigm Precision, a Malden manufacturer, gives a tour of the
factory floor to state Secretary of Housing and Economic Development
Gregory Bialecki Tuesday afternoon.
At Paradigm Precision, housed in an unassuming industrial building on Medford Street, Secretary Gregory Bialecki discussed career development programs and job-training with Tom Mitchell, vice president of operations at the large machine plant.
The shop was previously called Palmer Manufacturing before that company's owner, Smith West Inc., was bought by Paradigm in 2007. Based in Tempe, Ariz., Paradigm produces intricate parts for aircraft engines.
Mitchell said the company is bucking the larger trend of decline and has steadily added jobs for the last year while unemployment in the state increased during the same period. The problem, Mitchell said, is not with sales, but with finding enough qualified employees with basic math skills and machinist training.
The dearth of talent has forced the company to move work to other shops abroad, he said. The company has plants in Tunisia, Mexico and Tunisia as well as at three other domestic sites in Peabody, Connecticut, and Arizona.
"We're growing as fast as we can grow," Mitchell said. "Some of the
things we've struggled with are basic skills," he said, including
proficiency in high school-level algebra and trigonometry.
Bialecki toured the facility's clean and tightly packed shop floor, where rows of hulking machines mill complex parts out of solid metal using computer-controlled cutting arms.
The secretary and a handful of local development officials also made stops at The Heritage apartments and at a homeless shelter located at 254 Broadway, said Deborah Burke, the city's project director for economic development.
Bialecki said that his office is exploring a plan to run a program for machinists at North Shore Communitiy College.
Mitchell said such programs have worked well in Maine, where students at two locations fill out the ranks at similar companies that need skilled workers just as badly.
"Some of our people are worth their weight in gold. They make us what we are," Mitchell said.
Bialecki toured the facility's clean and tightly packed shop floor, where rows of hulking machines mill complex parts out of solid metal using computer-controlled cutting arms.
The secretary and a handful of local development officials also made stops at The Heritage apartments and at a homeless shelter located at 254 Broadway, said Deborah Burke, the city's project director for economic development.
Bialecki said that his office is exploring a plan to run a program for machinists at North Shore Communitiy College.
Mitchell said such programs have worked well in Maine, where students at two locations fill out the ranks at similar companies that need skilled workers just as badly.
"Some of our people are worth their weight in gold. They make us what we are," Mitchell said.
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