March 2015, West Rutland, Vermont — Rolf Hirschmann, President of H. Hirschmann LTD, announced the recent hiring of Dan Shea as the company’s Operations Manager. In his new role, Shea heads up a production team of skilled craftsmen and women, who design, engineer and manufacture custom wood windows and doors. “I am excited to be joining an already great team and look forward to helping them grow” says Shea.
Shea brings over 30 years of manufacturing & engineering experience to H. Hirschmann LTD. In his previous position at the Vermont Manufacturing Extension Center he was a Manufacturing and Business Growth Advisor working with Vermont businesses assisting with the development, training and implementation of continuous improvement projects. Throughout his career, Shea has held several operations management positions including President and CEO of a publicly held company.
“We’re pleased to have Dan aboard”, says Rolf, “As we are expanding our unique market exposure, he brings with him a wealth of knowledge and experience in manufacturing, continuous improvement and resource planning, that will be invaluable in our efforts to establish H. Hirschmann LTD as a leading national manufacturer of high end custom windows and doors.”
Vermont Program Helps Young Mom Advance Her Career at H. Hirschmann LTD
WEST RUTLAND — A Brandon mother working for a West Rutland manufacturer served as an example of the benefits of a state-supported job-training program during a visit by Gov. Peter Shumlin on Thursday.
Shumlin visited H. Hirschmann Ltd. to talk about the benefits of the Vermont Training Program, which works in partnership with employers who want to offer training to their employees or to bring new members to their workforce.
Krissy Davis of Brandon said she started work at Hirschmann as a graduate of Otter Valley Union High School hoping to support her family. After taking advantage of two training programs at Hirschmann, in 2009 and 2012, Davis is now a supervisor and a computer numerically controlled, or CNC, programmer.
Rolf Hirschmann, left, explains the latest technological innovations in window manufacturing to Gov. Peter Shumlin, who toured Hirschmann Windows and Frames in West Rutland.
When she started in 2007, Davis was a temp worker although she had some woodworking experience.
“I started learning the way Hirschmann did their windows and continued to want to do better, better myself and take on more responsibilities,” she said.
Davis said she wanted to be a role model to her children and teach them “they need to go to work every day.”
Davis said it “definitely helped” her achieve her present success at her job because the Vermont Training Program, or VTP, was available.
Rolf Hirschmann, president of the company that employs about 20 people, said employees needed training and having the state as a partner provided important advantages.
“As a small company, we don’t have that budget like a big company like GE or IBM does, so to get any help that we can pass on through (improving the employees’) skill level is much appreciated,” he said.
Hirschmann said he was also pleased that the training program offered a path to a “meaningful, very successful career” that didn’t necessarily require a college degree. The VTP also helps a small company like Hirschmann stay in Vermont as well as attract and keep skilled employees, Hirschmann added.
Shumlin said the VTP was a “great example of how we create jobs and lift Vermonters’ incomes.”
“This is an example of where we spend money wisely in Vermont. … We’ve trained thousands of Vermonters in the last year and their (median) wages went up, in 2014, by an average of 11.2 percent while other Vermonters wages as we know have been frustratingly stagnant,” he said.
Through the VTP, employers and the state work together to create and fund training programs for potential, new or experienced employees. State grants will pay up to half the cost of the training, but Beth Demers, director of workforce development programs for the VTP, said those grants needed to be matched by a serious commitment from the employer and their employees.
“The grant allows companies to do more training than they would do otherwise with more employees than they would do otherwise or more extensive training than they would be able to do. It is an incentive for training but it’s really bringing companies and their employees to that next new level and to allow them to grow here in Vermont and to be able to increase the standard of living for employees,” she said.
While Hirschmann said he sells most of his windows in the United States, especially in the Northeast, Demers pointed out his competition was all over the world.
“The more we can help employees in the state learn new skills to be competitive, the more we can help companies stay in Vermont and grow in Vermont,” she said.
Jamie Stewart, executive director of the Rutland Economic Development Corp., said his agency and their counterparts across the state served as a “marketing wing” for the VTP.
“We’re in with these businesses a lot. We see where they have their training needs and know the (VTP) so we know where it’s appropriate for companies to come into it,” he said.
The VTP has been used extensively in Rutland County and worked “quite effectively” to help companies such as Hirschmann grow, Stewart said.
Demers said the VTP is now open to all sectors of the economy and details, including information employers who wish to apply to the program might need, are available at www.thinkvermont.com.
