New England Tech Announces $40 Million Innovation Center to Expand Access to Skilled Trades Education

EAST GREENWICH, R.I.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan 7, 2026--

New England Institute of Technology (NEIT) today announced plans to construct a new Innovation Center for Building Sciences, a major campus expansion designed to meet the growing regional and national demand for highly trained skilled trades professionals.

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Demand for trained professionals in construction, electrical, plumbing, and building engineering technologies continues to outpace supply. The Innovation Center will expand NEIT’s capacity to prepare job-ready graduates in these critical fields, ensuring employers have access to the skilled talent needed to build, maintain, and modernize essential systems.

The project represents an investment of approximately $40 million in a new 53,000-square-foot facility to be built on NEIT’s East Greenwich campus. Groundbreaking is expected in Spring 2026, with construction expected to be completed by the end of 2027. Designed to support hands-on learning, the center will feature modern labs, industry equipment, and flexible learning spaces that mirror real-world job sites.

“Across the country, there is growing recognition of how vital the skilled trades are to our communities – something New England Tech has embraced for more than 80 years,” said Amy Grzybowski, Vice President of Workforce Development and Community Relations. “Our Innovation Center will expand opportunity for the next generation of skilled trade students while ensuring our region has the workforce needed to meet the labor demand.”

Once completed, the Innovation Center will expand NEIT’s total skilled trades training capacity to serve approximately 1,000 students annually from across the country.

Programs housed within the center will include building construction, electrical technology, plumbing, architectural building engineering technology, interior design, and construction management, with degree pathways offered at the associate, bachelor’s, and master’s levels. Students will benefit from hands-on training, state-of-the-art technology labs, accelerated degree options, and strong career earning potential upon graduation.

“New England Tech launched my career in the skilled trades and set me on a path to build my company into Rhode Island’s largest electrical contractor,” said Vin Rossi, President of Rossi Electric. “The new Innovation Center will ensure more students gain the same life-changing opportunities, while helping Rhode Island lead the nation in skilled trades education.”

The Innovation Center for Building Sciences, alongside NEIT’s recent skilled-trade tuition reductions and expanding employer partnerships, underscores the university’s continued leadership in elevating the trades as essential, future-focused careers.

NEIT serves as Rhode Island’s only designated Opportunity College by the Carnegie Foundation, which recognizes institutions that deliver the strongest economic return on educational investment.

NEIT has engaged Neil Steinberg, former CEO of the Rhode Island Foundation and Fleet Bank, as an advisor to support philanthropic development for the project and expanded scholarship opportunities. The project will be funded through institutional resources and philanthropic support, requiring no state funding, while strengthening the region’s workforce pipeline in high-demand trades.

About New England Tech:

New England Institute of Technology (NEIT) is a private, non-profit institution located in East Greenwich, Rhode Island. Accredited by the New England Commission of Higher Education, the university offers accelerated associate, bachelor’s and graduate degree programs in fields including skilled trades, automotive & marine technology, health sciences, cybersecurity, computer science, and engineering technology, with 95% of graduates employed in their field of study shortly after graduation. With a strong focus on experiential learning, NEIT prepares students by combining hands-on training with small class sizes and individualized support, so graduates enter the workforce faster and excel in their chosen careers.

New England Tech Announces $40 Million Innovation Center to Expand Access to Skilled Trades Education

New England Tech Announces $40 Million Innovation Center to Expand Access to Skilled Trades Education

WASHINGTON (AP) — Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Thursday that he will allow service members to carry personal weapons onto military installations, citing the Second Amendment and recent shootings at bases across the country.

In a video posted to X, Hegseth said he is signing a memo that will direct base commanders to allow requests for troops to carry privately owned firearms “with the presumption that it is necessary for personal protection.”

He said any denial of a service member's request must be explained in detail and in writing.

“Effectively, our bases across the country were gun-free zones,” Hegseth said. “Unless you're training or unless you are a military policeman, you couldn't carry, you couldn't bring your own firearm for your own personal protection onto post.”

Questions about why service members lacked access to weapons have often emerged following shootings on the nation's military bases. Such shootings have ranged from isolated events between service members to mass casualty events, such as the shootings by an Army psychiatrist at Texas’ Ford Hood in 2009 that left 13 people dead.

Hegseth cited some of the events in his video, including a shooting that injured five soldiers at Fort Stewart in Georgia last year. Officials said the shooter, an Army sergeant who worked at the base, used his personal handgun before he was tackled by fellow soldiers and arrested.

“In these instances, minutes are a lifetime,” Hegseth said. “And our service members have the courage and training to make those precious, short minutes count.”

Defense Department policy has prohibited military personnel from carrying personal weapons on base without permission from a senior commander, with strict protocol for how the firearms must be stored.

Typically, military personnel must officially check their guns out of secure storage to go to on-base hunting areas or shooting ranges, then check all firearms back in promptly after their sanctioned use. Military police are often the only armed personnel on base, outside of shooting ranges, hunting areas or in training, where soldiers can wield their service weapons without ammunition.

Tanya Schardt, senior counsel at the Brady gun violence prevention organization, said in a statement that Defense Department leaders and the military’s top brass have opposed relaxing the current policy, which was originally enacted under President George H.W. Bush.

Schardt noted that most active duty service members who die by suicide do so with a weapon they own personally, not one military-issued, and argued that there will “undoubtedly be an increase in gun suicide and other gun violence.”

While fewer American service members died by suicide in 2024, the suicide rates among active duty troops overall still have gradually increased between 2011 and 2024, according to a Pentagon report released Tuesday.

“Our military installations are among the most guarded, protected properties in the world, and they’ve never been ‘gun-free zones,’” Schardt said. “If there is a problem with violent crime on these installations, then the Secretary of Defense has an obligation to alert the American people and describe how he’s working to prevent that crime.”

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth speaks to members of the media during a press briefing at the Pentagon in Washington, Tuesday, March 31, 2026. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)