CNSE has been helping appropriate organizations in expanding and enhancing traditional specialized apprenticeships to retrain trade union workers to match the skills needed for cleanroom construction and machine tool fit-up. A case in point is the M&W Zander Center for Construction Trades Training (Skilled Trade Classifications), a $3.5 million office and cleanroom construction training center at the Watervliet Arsenal.

This joint venture of the Arsenal Business and Technology Partnership, CNSE (through its Albany NanoTech complex), and M+W Zander has received public and private funds. The training center is providing each year up to 120 trade union members with the skills necessary to meet the area's immediate need for personnel to construct and maintain clean-room facilities and install precision machinery.