100119...R HUSTED 2...Youngstown...10-01-19...Machinist Andrew Taylor of Boardman operates a milling machine at Kiraly Tool and Die, Inc. in Youngstown as Lt. Gov. Jon Husted tours the facility Tuesday afternoon...by R. Michael Semple

YOUNGSTOWN — Kyle Kiraly sees the need for higher-skilled workers at his family-owned Kiraly Tool and Die, Inc. on the city’s North Side to keep pace with advancing technology and trends in manufacturing.

The company has worked with Trumbull Career and Technical Center for training and is heavily involved in apprenticeship programs to fill the void of in-demand skills, so when another outlet presented itself to upskill the shop’s workforce, the machine and tool-and-die shop eagerly jumped.

It is among nine companies in Trumbull, Mahoning and Columbiana counties that took advantage of Ohio’s TechCred workforce development initiative in the program’s first round of funding.

Launched in October, TechCred’s goal is to help Ohio workers develop new and better skills and for their employers, an upskilled workforce that can adapt to and perform in increasingly technical fields.

It works like this: TechCred will reimburse up to $2,000 of the cost of training upon completion of a credential with one reimbursement available per employee in each funding round. Employers are eligible to receive up to $30,000 per funding cycle.

Employees must complete the training and employers must show proof of the credential in order to receive the reimbursement.

The state is now in its second funding cycle.

Kiraly Tool and Die applied for eight credentials and is eligible to be reimbursed $11,070 — a little more than half of what it will cost to get the training for the eight employees, said Kiraly, the company’s controller and tool designer.

Four of the credentials are related to machining, including one for an electrical discharge machine, a device that helps with some of the more difficult dies. The rest are for offline programming in computer aided machining.

The remaining four, Kiraly said, are for office staff for training in Excel and other programs.

“The major benefit to us is the opportunity cost of this,” said Kiraly. “If it was going to cost us $20,000, we may not opt to do all of it. We may opt to only do $10,000.”

The company employees 25 people, including two younger machinists hired before the holiday season.

“It (TechCred) is promoting business, promoting growth on the company side of things, and the individuals, they will all see growth in wages based on the new skill set,” Kiraly said. “We’ll hopefully turn that around and use this new skill set to generate new revenue for the company.”

Other companies in the Mahoning Valley awarded funding were Butech, Inc., Salem, one credential, $599; Columbiana Boiler Company, LLC, Columbiana, two credentials, $4,000; Hill International Trucks, East Liverpool, four credentials, $7,900; KTSDI LLC, New Middletown, five credentials, $10,000; Phantom Administrative, Youngstown, seven credentials, $3,175; Starr Manufacturing, Vienna, two credentials, $4,000; VEC, Inc., Girard, two credentials, $4,000; and Venture Plastics Inc., Newton Falls, four credentials, $8,000.

Starr Manufacturing Vice President Dale Foerster said her company will use the money to train two people to become a specialized weld inspector for quality control. Because the company does a lot of work in the oil and gas industry on pressure vessels, it’s key to have employees with that level of certification.

What the company does now is bring in an outside inspector and depending on that person’s schedule, work on projects may stop until the inspection is complete.

“Depending on the size of the game and thickness of the material, that is all very, very technical and and a certified weld inspector is able to know what he or she is looking for to help make the call, is this good or bad … they are also able to understand the process needed to repair welds,” Foerster said. “It’s very, very technical and strictly enforced.”

TechCred “is a big endeavor, initiative on the state’s part to help train Ohio employees to keep employees in the state and to help them meet the needs that companies may have,” Foerster said.