Members of the E-Team Machinist Training Program graduation class at Lynn Vocational Technical Institute are now equipped with new skills they can utilize in the workforce.

The E-Team is a nonprofit training program based at Lynn Tech.

Program Director Anthony Dunn said the latest class has 29 graduates who received their National Institute for Metalworking Skills (NIMS) certificate Saturday during a ceremony in the Lynn Tech cafeteria.

The program has been in operation since 1997. It’s a five-month program where students are hands-on in the machine shop at Lynn Tech.

“It’s very satisfying, we’ve changed peoples lives. We’ve given them a career that will give them family-supporting wages and benefits and help them be productive citizens for the rest of their lives,” Dunn said. “We take a lot of people that are in dead-end jobs or don’t have any career prospects, and we turn them around in five months and give them a skill.”

Dunn said the youngest graduate is 18 years old, and the oldest is 56. Dunn said that applicants for the program are required to have a high school diploma or GED and be employable.

Dunn expressed his gratitude for Lynn Tech, which has hosted the training program since its inception for the last 27 years.

“We’ve always used the classroom and the shop, and the city of Lynn and Lynn Public Schools has been tremendously supportive of us,” Dunn said.

For more information on the program visit eteamhome.net.