Alumnus at the Forefront of the Effort to Build a More Diverse and Thriving Manufacturing Workforce

On any given day, you might find Jamison (Jamie) Scott ’04 EMBA on a Zoom call with high school students asking them to imagine a career where they use virtual reality headsets to troubleshoot an issue at a company. Or he’s on NBC Connecticut talking about the opportunities and challenges in manufacturing.

He might be collaborating with other manufacturers and economic development officials, legislators, and staff on the local, state and federal levels to continually find ways to bolster manufacturing across Connecticut and make the workforce more diverse.

“I’m all over the place,” Scott says. “There’s never been a more exciting time to be in manufacturing.”

As the executive director of ManufactureCT, Scott oversees one of the oldest manufacturing associations in the country. Today, a large number of its members are young professionals, and many are women. He notes that there are 6,000 to 8,000 job openings in the state with such firms as Electric Boat, Sikorsky and more than 4,000 other manufacturers spread throughout the state making all sorts of things. "Connecticut firms create parts used in aircraft and spacecraft, medical instruments, sound and optic equipment, and so much more," Scott says.

His calendar is always full. In recent weeks, he’s talked with high school and community college administrators and a community foundation about state-funded training programs and how entry-level jobs can lead to life-changing, well-paying, lifelong careers in a field that is “lean, green, and clean.”

‘Jamie is an excellence example of this’

Colin Cooper, the state’s chief manufacturing officer, says that Connecticut has to fill thousands of jobs to “offset retirements and support growth. We need to identify historically overlooked sources of manufacturing talent – older workers, citizens from our underserved communities, women, high school graduates not going on to college or the military – and make sure that talent has the opportunity to access manufacturing training and enter the workforce,” he says.

“I continue to be impressed by the level of commitment of so many of our manufacturing business leaders in the state,” Cooper adds. “These folks have full-time jobs, yet they carve time out of their busy schedules to get involved to help the common cause. Jamie is an excellent example of this, and I admire both his dedication to ManufactureCT and the results he achieves in these efforts.”

ManufactureCT is only part of Scott’s life, as he is executive vice president of Air Handling Systems in Woodbridge. The firm was founded by his grandfather, Arthur Scott, who, following his service as an aviation sheet metal mechanic during World War II, built an industrial ventilation sheet metal shop.

In the 70s and 80s Scott’s father, David Scott, “saw that they continued to use the same materials, so he pivoted and produced inventory and built a warehouse,” he says. Today, Air Handling Systems is a leader in industrial ventilation and air handling and dust and fume collection with customers across the United States, Central and South America.

‘What impressed me more than anything…’

Scott has been part of the family firm for 34 years. He also serves on many community boards. As a father of three children, he can often be found zipping around getting them to lacrosse, dance, and swim practice.

But, then again, engaged and involved – busy – is just how Scott does life.

When he was in his late 20s, he joined the state’s manufacturing association so he could network locally. “I was half the age of everyone at the first meeting I went to,” he says. But he loved having the chance to listen to, observe, and learn from other people who worked in the field. Within five years, he was the association’s president, served on the board for 16 years, and three years ago, became executive director.

Shortly after he joined the association, he decided to pursue an advanced degree. The University of New Haven’s Executive MBA program appealed greatly to him because it would allow him to continue to work full time.

“What impressed me more than anything was the quality of the professors,” he says. “A number of them had taught at other schools, one or two came from Harvard. They shared their incredible expertise, their knowledge, and their experiences with us.”

It was a true test, he says, juggling full-time work, his association commitments, and his graduate studies. “We covered a lot of ground in two years,” he says. He found all of his courses relevant and compelling, particularly a trip to Washington, D.C., where he and other students met with legislators and staff, seeing the impact of governmental affairs on the industry.

Today, the University’s Pompea College of Business is a member of ManufactureCT, and the current president of ManufactureCT’s Board, Jill Mayer, the CEO of Bead Industries, is a member of the University’s Entrepreneurship and Innovation Advisory Board.

‘There is so much opportunity in manufacturing’

Scott says his time as a Charger and his professors’ lessons on collaboration and being able to innovate and change have served him well.

That has been especially true, he says, in these past two years, running a business amid the impact of a worldwide pandemic. From the pandemic’s earliest days, Scott and manufacturers from around the state were talking with Governor Ned Lamont and other officials three times a week, discussing ways to respond and move forward. “They understood manufacturing could not stop,” he says.

Scott wrote letters for his employees stating they were essential in case they were stopped on their way to work. The manufacturing industry, he says, has been vigilant tracking the virus, and there have been very few cases connected to manufacturing settings statewide. “And goods kept moving; production continued,” he says.

The field now faces not the typical one or two crises that happen in a given year, but half a dozen, he says, with supply chain problems, inflation, workforce openings that need to be filled, and the ongoing impact of the pandemic. But, Scott says, it’s still one of the best times to be in this ever-evolving field.

“For 20 years it was an uphill battle to help people understand what manufacturing is,” he says. “Now there is great statewide support, and there is a lot of funding for incumbent-worker training and for training for people starting a manufacturing career. The stars have finally aligned.

“Manufacturing is not just working with your hands in a shop,” he continues. “It’s working with computers to run half a million-dollar piece of machinery. We need folks to fix the equipment, who have a real understanding of the mechanical and electrical aspects of it. It’s not a college-only track or a hands-on-only field, it’s everything. There is so much opportunity in manufacturing.”