>> The photonics institute announced for Rochester
this week promises a way to turn new technology
featuring light and optics into products and
jobs.
But as Jane Flasch found out today, many jobs
in that very field are going unfilled right
now.
>> This is the new place of manufacturing.
Sydor in Henrietta makes flat optics, including
photonic chips that will be cut apart and
used in sensors.
One third of the filters used to make Hollywood
movies come from here, as well as the optics
for the projectors that play them.
>> We make most of the optics that go into
the 3-D projection system.
So if you have seen a 3D movies in the last
8 years, you’ve seen it through our optics.
>> 80 people have good paying jobs here and
finding employees is a challenge, even with
so many people looking for work.
>> We are doing manufacturing.
We need people that understand how to read
a blueprint, how to interpret that and how
to make it and understand that this process
yields me that result.
>> There are plenty of jobs at the middle
skills level that are currently unfilled.
>> Michael Jackson is with RIT.
This week he’s helping high school teachers
connect the science and math that they teach
in the classroom to that skilled jobs going
unfilled.
>> We want to get the teachers excited about
manufacturing and then they in turn will get
the students excited.
And together maybe we can get this turned
around and get our workforce field where they
need to be.
>> While these jobs do require training beyond
high school, it is often a two- year program
or less.
And for now the ad for these positions reads
have jobs and need the people.
Jane Flasch, 13 WHAM News.
>> And RIT is helping the high school teachers
to learn more about other middle skills jobs
that are going unfilled in microelectronics,
food processing and biomedical fields.
