New Bedford High Awarded State Grant For Robotics Lab

The Baker-Polito Administration has awarded New Bedford High School $275,000 as part of the state’s Workforce Skills Cabinet Grant program.  The High School will use these funds to construct a state-of-the-art Information Technology/Logistics Laboratory connected to robotic automation to support its Career Vocational Technical Education programming in IT and Engineering. The awards were announced as part of Governor Charlie Baker’s visit to Worcester Technical High School in Worcester yesterday.  This is the second Skills Capital Grant award for NBHS, the first being a $125,000 award for a financial laboratory.

Skills Capital Grants are designed to help high schools, colleges and other educational institutions invest in the most up-to-date training equipment to give their students an advantage when they continue in their chosen field or area of study.  New Bedford High School’s Robotic Logistics lab, which will include conveyor systems, robotic arms, a flight package of drones, and pneumatic training systems will support career pathway development for students interested in professional technical services, robotic automation, and supply chain management.  The laboratory and equipment used aligns with the professional technical services industry, which has been identified as a high growth career area by Mass Hire Greater New Bedford’s regional labor market blueprint.

“We are pleased to have received a second skills capital grant to support our expanding CVTE program”, said Bernadette Coelho, Headmaster of New Bedford High School. “NBHS is committed to providing opportunities for our students to be college and career ready, and the new IT logistics laboratory supports this overarching goal.  We appreciate the support of the Governor’s Workforce Skills Cabinet in helping us bolster our workforce training curriculum.”

 The robotics logistics lab compliments New Bedford High School’s growth in career technical education, as it has committed to fostering new vocational programming and supplementing its existing technical training offerings.

“Information Technology and robotic automation has been identified as a high demand career growth area, and our laboratory will foster additional linkages with employers seeking to hire students with the advanced technical training our lab will provide,” said Christopher Cummings, Manager of New Bedford’s Career Vocational Technical Education program, who noted that the laboratory will support new linkages with post-secondary institutions to provide credentialing pathways in robotics.  “This lab will be a game changer for our students, as the new credentialing pathways will foster opportunities for obtaining high paying careers in the field.”

New Bedford High School’s IT and Engineering programs are part of the school’s offerings of Career Vocational Technical Education programming and is affiliated with the National Academy Foundation’s Academy of Finance.  In addition to Finance, the school offers career pathway programs in Instructional Technology, Health Sciences, Engineering, Early Childhood Education, and Criminal Justice.  For more information about Career and Technical Education at New Bedford High School, please contact Christopher Cummings, Manager of CVTE at 508 997 4511, ext. 24204

Information from New Bedford Public Schools