The Jamestown area got an early Christmas present last week with the announcement that the final piece of funding is in place for Electrovaya to open its lithium ion battery Gigafactory in Ellicott.

The Canadian company will create about hundreds of new jobs in a local economy that has long needed the addition of dependable, non-seasonal, non-tourism-related positions. It’s been a long road for Electrovaya as company officials worked through the purchase of the former MD Electronics building in the Mason Industrial Park and then pieced together the puzzle of loans, tax incentives and financing needed to build the plant that company officials say will fuel Electrovaya’s next wave of expansion.

Raj Das Gupta, Electrovaya CEO, told reporters last week that one reason the company chose Jamestown was its workforce, particularly after talking to Heidenhahn officials. Heidenhahn used to own the building where Electrovaya is building its new factory and spoke highly of the quality of workers at its Jamestown plant. At the same time, we’ve been hearing for years about workforce issues facing area manufacturers. There have been programs and initiatives aimed at encouraging younger workers to enter manufacturing jobs as older workers retire. We’ve heard a lot about workers lacking soft skills and having a hard time consistently getting to work.

Hundreds of thousands of dollars on career and technical education to begin rebuilding the area’s manufacturing workforce. If Electrovaya begins hiring and has a hard time finding people we’ll know that we still have work to do building the workforce that can sustain the type of manufacturing jobs our community needs. If Electrovaya is able to find workers quickly and open smoothly it will be an indication that we’re on the right track with our workforce development efforts.

For the past couple of years the question regarding Electrovaya focused on securing the investment it needed to make the Gigafactory a reality. Electrovaya has delivered. Can we?