BROOKLINE – A partnership with DECCO Inc., a premier mechanical contractor located at 32 Rte. 13, has partnered with Nashua high schools’ Technology Center.

The program offers an internship program and can include students not only from Nashua, but also the Milford, Amherst, Wilton, Lyndeborough, Mont Vernon and Hollis areas.

The partnership is aimed at giving students the opportunities to participate in internships and be considered for DECCO’s apprenticeship program with an intensive pre-apprentice “boot camp” upon graduation from Nashua high schools.

The DECCO apprentice program is nationally accredited.

Nashua Technology Center director Dorothy O’Gara said the goal of the programs is to encourage and prepare them for a career or continuing their education in a post-secondary institution.

“The 18 programs give the students a competitive edge in that, some of them have industry recognized certifications,” she said. “Other programs have dual-enrollment with Rivier University, SNHU and the community college system.”

O’Gara said DECCO has been very active, not just with their clients, but also in the manufacturing of the vaccine development for Moderna and Lonza.

In fact, DECCO was recently recognized with the International Society of Pharmaceutical Engineering Facility of the Year award for facility integration for Pfizer building E, in Andover, Massachusetts.

“Each vaccine, each medicine, has to have the particular engineering to go through the process,” she explained. “DECCO did all of that piping for the facilities.”

O’Gara called DECCO a “well-kept secret.”

“Here’s this little sleepy town of Brookline with a company like DECCO, who is making such an international impact,” she said. “And it’s great for our students because DECCO is coming in and making recommendations for redesigning the program and they’re going to be taking our students for their apprenticeship program.”

DECCO offers career assessment during a student’s freshman year, that guides them into an area for which their natural instincts are best suited.

“Students will have the opportunity to explore careers while they’re still in high school,” O’Gara said.

There are 1,250 students between the Nashua high schools, as well as area students from Milford, Hollis, Merrimack, Amherst and Hudson.

“Occasionally, we’ll have a student from Wilton or Lyndeborough as well,” Ogara said.

Program instructor John Finocchiaro began in 2008 in the Nashua school district as an automotive instructor.

“I was an automotive instructor solely up until two years ago,” he said. “One of the directors of the program wanted to revamp our machining program. And it’s hard to get kids into these programs now, which is new to me, too.”

Finocchiaro said with the automotive classes, students, with a love for cars, were quick to join.

“We never had a problem getting students in,” he said. “We were always oversubscribed. But with manufacturing and when we used to have machining, it’s hard to attract them. They don’t really know what it is.”

Manufacturing is especially tough, Finocchiaro said, because it is such a broad field.

“It’s not in your face like the rest of the industry,” he said. “But what’s nice about being broad is that we can start showing them more. When I started this program, it was on machining. But now that I’ve talked to so many people in the industry, I’m learning a lot, too. And it’s never in your face – it’s like backdoor. There’s not a storefront for manufacturing.”

Cars, Finocchiaro said, “are on the road.”

“They’re on TV all the time,” he said. “‘Fast and the Furious’ was probably the best thing for the automotive industry.”

Manufacturing is more gritty and the misconception that it’s “grunt” work is wrong.

“There is nothing farther than the truth,” Finocchiaro said. “Manufacturing jobs, where an employee has room to move and grow, and thinks on his or her own, that’s the way it is now.”

Manufacturing may not be sexy by anyone’s definition, but the complexity of the trade makes it interesting for students. Moms and Dads however, may not always be as excited about this particular trade.

“Parents are a big obstacle,” Finocchiaro said. “There is a sexy side to manufacturing. You can make a really decent paycheck and still use your brain. DECCO brings so much of that to the table.”

Students can see the forest through the trees, as they navigate through the Nashua Technology

Center’s many programs, with advice from professionals who know the ropes of the manufacturing industry.

“There is a light at the end of the tunnel,” Finocchiaro said. “If you see what you’re learning in school can be used in the real world, after high school, that makes a huge difference.”

DECCO Chief Executive Officer Kyle Reagan and Partner Development Manager Bill Burg are enthusiastic about what students can gain from working with their firm.

“We’ve have an apprentice program for 25 years,” Reagan said. “It was originally a four-year program and we recently reduced it to a three-year program because there is a requirement of work hours these folks need to get in the field, as well as in the classroom.”

Reagan said that the hours across the board total 450 for school hours and 6,000 trade hours in the field.

“It’s quite a commitment on their part,” Reagan said. “We’re proud of the work with do with our clients, but we’re more proud that we attract people into the trade with a career path program, including the apprenticeship program, which brings meaningful work and long-term careers to people who might otherwise have been discounted because they didn’t have an interest in a college degree and a couple hundred thousand dollars-worth of debt right out of high school.”

Burg said that DECCO has just started with Nashua Technology Center and will introduce students into the program in 2022, since COVID has derailed the plans.

“I don’t think we’ll take anyone on this year,” Burg said. “I’m working with John to get the classroom set up. And my role with John is to address the skills of manufacturing, in particular, welding. We’re going to be bringing in some vendors and we’re going to look at getting equipment, either plasma or water-jet cutting. We’ll get some welding machines in there as well, and that will involve getting some ventilation set up.”

DECCO has been doing a lot of work with their apprentice program in Massachusetts.

“We work with several of the schools there now, recruiting their students to come in for our career day,” Burg said. “We conduct interviews, and then look at getting some of these students into the program, which starts in the summer, which includes a three-week ‘boot camp.'”

Burg said that students learn the terminology and an understanding of what DECCO does.

“Once they get out to the job site, they’ll know what they they’re talking about,” Burg said. “When they’re asked to grab a piece of equipment, they’ll know what that piece of equipment is called.”

The bottom line is educating students so they can make an informed decision that will impact their future.

“If the kids don’t want to go to college, they’re probably looking for direction,” Burg said. “But there is a whole other group out there who doesn’t even realize that this is a viable option to make a good living and have a career with it.”

Burg said the perception of construction from years ago, was that a person had to go into the trades if they didn’t go to college.

“That’s turned around,” Berg said. “The trades are starving for people. And skilled people. So, the hope is tapping off of those kids who think that college is their only option. No it isn’t. The trades is another option for a career.”